Team Seven - Ripples in the Water
by Drakenn
Summary: The mission to Nami no Kuni shook the Team Seven and made their sensei act more seriously. This is the effect of his new determination and outlook.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N – Another Naruto story that I write. Hopefully this one finally gets finished one day. Anyways, stays relatively close to canon and doesn't diverge until a certain point. But you will find out one day.**

**o-0-o**

Kakashi looked at the memorial stone and thought. The mission to Nami no Kuni, one that was supposed to bring some order and calm to his team turned out to be a mess. Naruto used Kyubi's chakra for the first time, while Sasuke unlocked the Sharingan. It also showed that while their teamwork was decent, they didn't know much actual knowledge, a very bitter thing for Kakashi to swallow.

"Perhaps they need individual training," someone said and Kakashi's head jerked when he identified the person as Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage. "It wasn't unheard of for the team to be temporarily broken, with each of its members receiving individual tutoring."

Kakashi turned and looked at the aged leader who walked towards him in the pristine white and red robes of the reigning Hokage. Kakashi was aware that Sarutobi Hiruzen was one of the most deadly shinobi around, but in the robes he wore he looked like an elder or a sage. A relatively harmless, yet wise person.

"I read your report about the mission," Hiruzen continued and paused, looking at the onyx black surface of the stone. "And I know that what you wrote in it isn't entirely correct. That you think that they need some kind of a shock or maybe a change before you allow them to participate in the chunin exams we will host."

"It's not that," Kakashi said and his fist clenched. "I failed them as a sensei and a leader. I should have prepared them before the mission and make sure they are ready for it. The only one that has some skills is Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura lack skills or the knowledge how to use them."

The Hokage stood there watching the monument and Kakashi followed the gaze of the elder leader. Just to notice him focus on the name Namikaze Minato before slipping towards the rest of the ones killed when Kyuubi broke free.

"We all learn from our mistakes, Kakashi," Sandaime Hokage said and gave him a look. "You are calmer and more analytical than some of your fellow jonin. I know jonin that have years more of experience and aren't that keen to acknowledge that they failed their team." The Hokage allowed himself a small smile, a thing that shocked Kakashi. Of all things he didn't expect the Hokage to smile. "Tell me, Kakashi, you know that they lack training and need to develop. What would you do or better, what would your sensei do?"

Kakashi averted his gaze from the monument and focused on the Hokage. "Minato-sensei would have tried to assign each of them a teacher that could help them overcome their problems and let them develop as shinobi."

"And what stops you from doing exactly that?"

The question was pointed and it stung Kakashi badly. He closed his eye and took several long breaths before opening it and looking at his leader and commander. "Because I believed, foolishly thought, that they could learn that on their own and allow me to focus on their teamwork and team cohesion."

"Not everybody is a prodigy," the Hokage said quietly and walked away from the memorial stone. "Walk with me, Kakashi."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Sandaime Hokage walked into the woods and headed deeper into the forest, into the part that was as old as the village itself. If not older. "You know the Will of Fire," the Sandaime said and Kakashi only nodded. "Then you know that sheer power is not everything and you should know that not many are geniuses that develop their own jutsu before the age of thirteen. Most needs careful nurturing and training to let their talent grow and flourish. Of all of your genin, Sasuke-kun is maybe not a genius, but he had some clan training before Itachi-kun murdered his clan, and since then he strives to be better than Itachi. While Naruto and Sakura..."

"While Sakura is from a civilian family and never had the support nor the opportunities Sasuke or even Naruto had and have," Kakashi said and wanted to berate himself mentally, but then stopped and looked at the Sandaime. "She's incredibly smart, a useful trait, but lacks the mental toughness of a shinobi, as well as skills that are useful on the battlefield. On the other hand Naruto is a genin that has all the potential in the world and drive to be the best shinobi, yet was pulled down at the Academy and nobody rectified those mistakes."

"It was partially your duty," the Sandaime said gently and Kakashi only nodded, no matter how the words stung he couldn't say much. "It's not only Naruto that struggles after they graduate from the Academy, some others also skipped classes or weren't fairly treated. One of your tasks as a jonin and their sensei was to notice what was taught badly and correct it."

"Yet the Council and you pushed me to focus on Sasuke," Kakashi said and glared at his leader. "Even if everybody knows that Sasuke is the one that needs the attention the least. Lack of it could have been good for him."

The Sandaime nodded and for once Kakashi could see the weight of the ages and experience on the shoulders of his leader. "We all made mistakes," Sarutobi Hiruzen said quietly, but then Kakashi heard steel to this voice. Steel he rarely heard in the voice of the aged Kage. "Now is the time for you to fix them, Kakashi. As long as you will bring results, I'm willing to bend the rules for you and the team, but you need to give me the results by the time of the chunin exams."

Kakashi closed his eye and did the math. There were five to seven months before the first round of the exams and that ought to be plenty of time to turn the cute and sorely lacking in skill genin of his into a somewhat comptent team that had a good chance in the exams.

"I will have two requests," Kakashi said and then frowned as Hokage looked at him. "No, three. One, Mitarashi Anko will be pulled from the roster of ninja that can go on missions. Two, ANBU Tora will be pulled out of the ANBU and finally I can tell Naruto something about his parents."

"Mitarashi Anko will be made available for you," the Hokage said and then added looking pointedly at Kakashi. "As much as her schedule will allow for. She's one of the best intelligence gathering people we have. So I fear anything more you will need to discuss with Ibiki."

"That I can live with," Kakashi said. "But I also have other choices in mind, Inuzuka Hana or Yuuhi Kurenai. However, Anko-chan will be the best person for the job."

"And I assume that she should oversee the training of the sole kunoichi of your team," the Hokage said with some faint smile. "Yes, that will be a good idea." The gaze of the aged leader focused on Kakashi. "As for Naruto, no, you can't tell him quite yet. Maybe when he makes chunin. Now I don't think he can be entrusted with the knowledge."

"The knowledge might push him to his limits," Kakashi said quietly. "Sensei is his idol."

"And the one who sealed Kyuubi inside of him," the Hokage added grimly. "No, he needs to get ready for it. I don't think we want to have a horde of Iwa assassins in the village. All of them wanting to murder Naruto because of Minato."

Kakashi nodded and pulled out his Icha Icha book and started to read it, ignoring his leader for a second. "What about the Uzumaki clan heritage of his, then?"

Hokage jerked at this and glared at him. "You don't think that it is much wiser?"

"Everybody assumes that Uzumaki are dead," Kakashi said in his defense. "And I don't think anybody outside of Uchiha Mikoto who is dead and Jiraiya-sama can tell that there is a connection between Kushina-sama, Naruto and Minato-sensei."

"That is true," Hiruzen mused and looked at the Hokage monument visible in the distance. "I will need to think on it and decide what can be safely disclosed to him. Now, however, why do you want Tenzo?"

"Sasuke," Kakashi said and allowed himself a smile under his mask. "For once that spoiled brat needs a good beating or two and I am sick of his avenger mentality. I get that he wants to kill Itachi, good for him, but as of now he is more of Orochimaru than anything."

"Itachi did something to the boy," the Hokage said and shook his head. "Danzo, why did you make me do this? But that is a matter that can't be addressed now. I will have Tenzo be given new identity and pulled out of ANBU."

Kakashi nodded and the next moment the aged leader was gone in a swirl of leaves. Leaving the silver-haired jonin to ponder upon the content of their talk and the consequences it would have for the future of him and the team. He didn't want to fail them and now he felt that he had a decent chance of achieving just that.

o-0-o

A certain Sage in a far away land sneezed violently. He somehow thought about his godson and the fact that perhaps he should have considered checking on him. He was away from Konoha for close to ten years by now. The world was strangely silent, no new plots and no new threats outside of a certain snake lurking in the sand.

The Sage grimaced at that. Was his former teammate that foolish and arrogant? A pale and dark-haired individual was hard not to be spotted in the sand and even harder not to be seen when they were a wanted criminal. A criminal that had the biggest total bounty on their head since a really, really long time.

"The sensei might be getting senile," the sage said and sighed, shaking his head sadly. "But Ibiki or Shikaku should have been able to spot this plot." He paused and his eyes widened for a second. "Unless someone is running interferences and there is a skilled spy inside of Konoha. One that eluded everybody's attention."

He finished his sake and with a heavy heart walked out of the inn he was staying in. The time to come home and check what was going on was upon him and in far grimmer times than he originally hoped for. Checking on Naruto and maybe teaching the kid a thing or two moved down the list of to do things to the very bottom. With Orochimaru plotting and hoping to kick Konoha in the crotch during the exams he needed to act fast and prevent some of the damage.

o-0-o

Sarutobi Hiruzen poured himself sake and drank it before sitting down and looking at the village visible from the windows of his office. It looked so calm and peaceful, yet underneath that quiet and kind outer skin there was the darkness he didn't want to admit. Danzo, his estranged teammate was a criminal that acted in the shadows for what he believed was good of the village. A thing with which Hiruzen couldn't agree and disagree at the same time. Some of his actions were good and useful, but the vast majority was a risk to the village and its inhabitants. It wasn't the time to pluck that weed out of the forest, but perhaps it was a time to scare Danzo a bit and remind him that the Hokage was the one who controlled the village, not Danzo.

"Fetch me Shikaku and Tora," Hokage said and then added after a moment. "And Ibiki."

It wasn't the most subtle or safe of moves, but without the latter two the chance to mess with Danzo was almost non-existent and Shikaku was needed for a certain adjustment to the plans. Even if some were fooled by his appearance as a gentle and kind shinobi he steel had the intelligence and ruthlessness that let him steer Konoha through two wars and it seemed that some forgot that there was a reason why he was called Shinobi no Kami.

With that done the Hokage poured himself more sake and slowly sipped, his mind going over possibly alliances and villages that could be coerced or convinced to attack Konoha. Kiri was out of question since they still had their bloody war going on and Yagura wasn't keen on giving up easily. Kumo was watching and waiting and had their issues with Iwa. And Iwa was still licking its wounds after Kiiroi Senko massacred them and Onoki didn't want second slaughter.

"So Suna, Kusa, Taki or Ame," Sandaime muttered and looked out of the window. "I expected more flair from you, Orochimaru. You were a genius, a prodigy, and now you can't play the game of politics with an old monkey."

Those musings were cut short by Shikaku, Tora and Ibiki arriving in the office. The Hokage looked at them and then signed at his guards to leave the room. There was no need for onlookers to be present when he wanted to plan the strategy. He trusted his ANBU, but there was no such thing as too much security. Especially when dealing with his rogue teammates and students.

"Hokage-sama," Shikaku said in bored voice and Sandaime looked at him. "Why did your ANBU needed to pull me away from my nap?"

"Chunin exams," the Hokage said and he could feel all three of them tense. Even if Tora was an ANBU and knew how to hide emotions. Summoning three high-ranking ninja to discuss chunin exams was unheard of. "First thing, Tora, since now you are pulled out of ANBU and transfered to the normal forces. Kakashi-kun requested your help with training one of his genin and I can see a benefit of it."

"Which one?" Shikaku asked and the boredom was gone from his face.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the Hokage said and waved his hand to silence protests from Shikaku and Tora. "Yes, he is a spoiled brat and yes, Kakashi is supposed to train him, but he wants someone to knock some sense into the thick skull of that boy." Then the Hokage looked at Tora. "You served with Kakashi in the same team and since you knew Itachi I believe you can deal with boy's issues and get him to think."

"It has some merits," Morino Ibiki of all people said and Hokage inclined his head towards the scarred leader of their Torture and Interrogation division. "The brat is used to people handling him everything on a silver platter. I took a look at his Academy reports and had one of the Yamanakas take a look at him..."

"And he is becoming like Orochimaru," the Hokage finished and Ibiki only nodded.

"Breaking him might be the only option then," Tora said and winced. "I will do what I can, Hokage-sama."

Hokage nodded and dismissed the ANBU before looking at the remaining shinobi. "How much can we bend the rules and get away with it?"

"Depends what do you want to achieve," Shikaku said and shrugged. "Danzo or your two other teammates aren't stupid."

"Kakashi wants peace when training his team and as little distractions as possible," the Hokage said. "No missions, no pesky requests and as little politics as possible."

"Missions will be the easiest to avoid," Shikaku said and frowned. "However, keeping the curious eyes off them will be a challenge. Root is very much alive, no matter what we pretend and your teammates have their own spies and agents."

"Ah, yes," the Hokage said and smiled. "Root, the soulless agents of Danzo." Then the gaze of the old leader hardened and he focused on Ibiki. "Can you rattle them a bit? I believe my old teammate forgot a bit his proper place and needs a pointed lesson."

"Should I arrest and interrogate them?" Ibiki asked with a grim smile. "Or just scare them."

"Do as you see fit. The freedom of movements the agents of Danzo and our enemies have is troubling." The Kage looked out of the window, ignoring the two ninja. "I don't want to start another war and Kami help me, but I will do everything to prevent it. Even if it means permanently removing the agents working inside of Konoha. And even if it means killing my rogue student."

"Hokage-sama..." Shikaku started to say and Hiruzen looked at him. "You look worried."

Hiruzen snorted at this, allowing himself to behave more like a normal, kind human. "I'm not worried," he said amused. "Tell me, Shikaku. Which of the villages that is close to us can pose a threat to us?"

"Possibly Suna," Shikaku said and frowned. "Yondaime Kazekage has a potent Kekkei Genkai that would be a hard thing to counter. The rest lacks either the manpower or the firepower to be more than an annoyance that makes us consider them a bug to squeeze."

The Hokage nodded, he heard the same statement over and over again. After all one that had maybe a thousand ninja in total couldn't pose a serious threat to someone who had close to twenty thousand ninja and could mobilize few thousand more if pressed. However that was for a pitched battle, an event like the chunin exams were a different scenario.

"What if they attacked us during the exams?" The Hokage wondered aloud and Shikaku's eyes widened.

"We would have a problem," was the only answer from Nara patriarch. "There are dozens of nobles, dozens of feudal lords, each of them requiring some protection. Not to mention masses of civilians and foreign genin and their sensei."

"Hokage-sama, are you implying that we might be attacked during the exams?" Ibiki asked, making Hokage look in his direction. "It all suggests as if you were expecting such an attack."

"I'm not expecting such an attack," the Hokage said and shifted, hiding his unease. "I'm merely trying to understand the logic behind certain actions of a rogue student of mine... Well, him and a certain teammate of mine. Both of them are up to something and I want to have your opinions and thoughts on the issue."

"Do you assume that Orochimaru and Danzo are working together?" Ibiki asked, voicing a question Shikaku wanted to ask, but wasn't too sure.

"I wouldn't put it past them, but I don't think they want to draw more attention than necessary," the Hokage said and frowned. "Besides, Orochimaru's mind is so twisted and warped that I think he would have died first than asked Danzo for help. Danzo would be more willing to acquire help as long as the end result was him being the Hokage, but, but he is clever and knows well that I'm not a senile old man many think I am."

"None of them has the manpower to attack Konoha alone or carry out a coup when nobody sees it," Shikaku mused aloud. "But if they use a third party like one of the nearby villages that have a grudge against us, then maybe they have a chance."

o-0-o

Team Seven was one of the most famous or infamous teams of Konohagakure no Sato, in some villages names of the shinobi from those teams was used by the mothers to scare their kids into obedience. In Konoha however it was seen as the best and the most prestigious one. Being a sensei of it was a honor or that was what Kakashi heard when he received it.

Since then he doubted it, while the original Team Seven, with the current Hokage as a part of it and under the tutelage of the Shodaime and Nidaime was great. Same as the next generation, this one taught by the Sandaime Hokage, they were the Sannin. The three best ninja of their generation who won their fame and glory on the blood soaken fields of the last war.

Then came the team of Jiraiya of the Sannin, from which came Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato and under his tutelage Kakashi's team was the previous generation. A dysfunctional team, yet it somehow worked and their sensei managed to keep it together. Kakashi wished his sensei was back as the team he was now given was a troublesome and even more dysfunctional.

They were bickering and in some cases disobedient, not to mention their rebellious streak and the complete lack of respect for him. Which didn't bothered him too much, but was an annoyance and other jonin pointed it out. He shrugged and with that cheerful image he walked to the border of the Training Ground Forty-four.

It was the main venue of the chunin exams and the home of Mitarashi Anko, a person feared even inside of Konoha. Kakashi winced at that, it wasn't entirely her fault that Orochimaru was her former sensei and even less that she was given the seal he developed. But for once Kakashi was glad that she was so feared in Konoha, Sakura needed a pointed lesson or two and who was better at that then a crazed snake summoner? He couldn't find any other suitable shinobi outside of few ANBU that were too precious to drag away from their duties.

He stopped at the outskirts of the forest and dodged a kunai that appeared out of nowhere. "Yo, Anko!" he yelled, after a second the trees shuddered and Mitarashi Anko dropped onto the ground in front of Kakashi.

"What do you want, Kakashi-kun?" Anko asked as she approached him. "Coming to find me in my domain. Brave of you."

"A favor," he said and smiled. "A student of mine, one Haruno Sakura would have some use of your tutelage."

Anko paused and a snake slithered out of the sleeve of her coat. "Why should I babysit a genin?" she asked cheerfully. "I have better things to take care of than a genin of yours."

"She has potential," Kakashi said and eye-smiled. "She's from a civilian family and needs someone like you to realize that the world of shinobi is less than the stories she heard and more grim."

"Ohhh," Anko purred as she moved closer to Kakashi who didn't even blink at this. He served in ANBU and that made him see even more obvious attempts at seduction. "Now, Kaka-kun, why you didn't mention this before? She sounds much more interesting than you initially said."

Kakashi eye-smiled and ignored her behavior. He was here on business and for more pleasant things he had time when the duty was done. "Because you would have kidnapped her and dragged back to your home before letting me explain," he said and looked at Anko. "Can you restrain yourself a bit?" he asked and then went on, ignoring her protests. "While I appreciate your methods you will control yourself and don't go too wild on her. She might not survive your more crazy ideas and I don't want to fill out paperwork for a killed in action genin."

Anko pouted at this and shoved her body against Kakashi, only to be coldly shoved back by him. The gaze of his eye telling her that enough was enough and she should remember her place. "Fiiine... I will try to restrain myself," she said and smiled. "But you pay for all the dango I will eat until she's my student."

Pay... For all of the dango?"

"Yes," Anko said and smiled. "It isn't that expensive and you want your kunoichi trained, dont you?" Kakashi only nodded at this, making Anko smile turn into a grin. "Tell me, where your team usually meets and when?"

"Training Ground Three," Kakashi said and then added. "At nine."

Before he finished those words Anko was gone and he stared only at a slowly disappearing cloud of smoke and dust. He blinked and bit down on his lip, hard enough to end any possible genjutsu. He never saw her move so fast or be so excited at the idea of meeting a genin. A genin of all fucking people.

o-0-o

The next morning one Uzumaki Naruto arrived at the Training Ground Three blissfully unaware of the evil plans of his so far laid back sensei. The couple of clouds moving across the sky and the sun above didn't herald any world shattering events, in fact it was as ordinary of a day as one could imagine. Even his teammates seemed unaware of the changes that were about to happen to their lives and team.

"What a lovely team you have, Kakashi," Tenzo also known as Tora and Yamato muttered from his perch on one of the lower branches of an ancient oak. "Naruto's clothing screams kill me, Sakura's hair even more so. Only the broody, I assume Sasuke, is somewhat more aware of his surroundings and less obvious."

"Sakura's dress isn't much better," Anko commented cheerfully as a snake slid out of the sleeve of her coat. "Yes, yes, I will have a lot of fun with her..."

**o-0-o**

**A/N – And cut, I'm mean, but cliffhangers are nice. Yes, Anko gets Sakura and Tora gets Sasuke while Kakashi handles Naruto. Much pain, suffering and blood will come from this. Hopefully none of them will end murdered or killed, but maimed, there is a chance.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N – Second chapter, some small changes and some students meet their new cute teachers. Read, review and enjoy.**

**o-0-o**

The next morning one Uzumaki Naruto arrived at the Training Ground Three blissfully unaware of the evil plans of his so far laid back sensei. The couple of clouds moving across the sky and the sun above didn't herald any world shattering events, in fact it was as ordinary of a day as one could imagine. Even his teammates seemed unaware of the changes that were about to happen to their lives and team.

"What a lovely team you have, Kakashi," Tenzo also known as Tora and Yamato muttered from his perch on one of the lower branches of an ancient oak. "Naruto's clothing screams kill me, Sakura's hair even more so. Only the broody, I assume Sasuke, is somewhat more aware of his surroundings and less obvious."

"Sakura's dress isn't much better," Anko commented cheerfully as a snake slid out of the sleeve of her coat. "Yes, yes, I will have a lot of fun with her."

"Anko, don't kill her," Kakashi said and she shrugged at her glare. "I didn't say you shouldn't try to murder her if you think it will wake her up. But don't actually do the deed."

"I didn't say that I will kill her," Anko said with an unnervingly cheerful smile. "I only stated that her dress screams kill me. And her hair is also a problem..." Anko then paused and slowly turned to look really closely at Kakashi. "Did you or anybody else explain to her why such long mane of hair can be a problem?"

Kakashi blinked and then frowned. "I assumed that the Academy explained it to them," he said slowly. "I didn't do it as I thought that since the Academy did it she would know it."

Anko sighed and the snake that slid out of her coat hissed threateningly. "Kaka-baka," she murmured and then turned to look at Tenzo. "I'm curious what do you think about your broody."

"Will be a handful," Tenzo said and shrugged. "For once I wish he was like Itachi. For all of his faults, Itachi actually listened to what you said."

"Yet he slaughtered his own clan," Kakashi murmured quietly and then looked at his friends. "I'll come first and have a chat with them before you two come. I don't want my cute little genins scared by you."

o-0-o

Naruto yawned as he looked at the sky. Their sensei was once again late, this time even later than usually, but that tardiness was a thing Team Seven managed to get used to. But it didn't mattered much as they were still grumpy and irritated by it. Naruto sighed and slumped against a tree.

Then a swirl of leaves appeared in the middle of the Training Ground and seconds later in its place was standing Kakashi. He eye-smiled at them and even angry outburst of Naruto. "You're late!" didn't seem to irritate him.

"Maa..., maa...," he said and looked at them. "For once I have a valid excuse. I was talking with Hokage-sama about the future of the team."

At those words even usually broody Sasuke snapped out of mood and looked at Kakashi. The cold, emotionless onyx black eyes focused on the older shinobi with something more than irritation visible in them.

"He suggested that for the time being the team is split," Kakashi said and swiftly ignored Naruto's outburst. "Yes," Kakashi said and easily blocked hot-headed Uzumaki. "It is unusual for a fresh genin team, however similar things happened in the past and we believe it will be for the better of the team if the next six months you spend with a sensei on your own."

In two bursts of smoke and leaves appeared two shinobi that made even Naruto back away. He was a hot-headed one, but there was something unnerving in the way those two looked and behaved. Something that suggested he shouldn't test them or it would end badly.

"Those two are Mitarashi Anko and Yamato," Kakashi said and eye-smiled. "Sakura, you will be training under Anko and Sasuke, you will be trained by Yamato."

Sasuke jumped down from his perch and glared at Yamato. "How can he teach me how to defeat my brother?" he asked not even bothering to hide his hostility or anger.

He didn't have a chance to say more as Yamato moved and sent Sasuke crashing against the tree. "I suggest that you don't underestimate me, Sasuke-kun," Yamato said and approached the Uchiha. "I don't have the Sharingan, but I'm still a jonin and making an enemy out of me can be a risky move on your part."

Sasuke looked up, still dazed by the force of the punch and then the unforgiving and hard tree trunk. He didn't say anything, he only spit out blood and glared at the shinobi with a challenge in his eyes. This single moment made it obvious for Naruto why he was so unsettled by those shinobi. Kakashi-sensei looked friendly and less scary. Those didn't bother hiding the fact that they could kill him. No, they showed it openly.

"With that done," Kakashi said, looking at Sasuke with no kindness or compassion in his sole eye. A thing that unnerved and freaked out Naruto even more. "It leaves only me and Naruto." With those words he eye-smiled and looked at Naruto. "Next six months you will spend being trained by me and I won't be a gentle person." Kakashi paused and looked at Yamato and Anko. "Go and have fun and don't murder them."

Before he finished saying those words Anko and Yamato were gone. Sakura and Sasuke too.

"Naruto," Kakashi said as he crossed the distance separating them. "I may be tardy and friendly and still am. But not now." Naruto looked at his jonin, unsure what Kakashi was going to say next. "I will train you to the best of my abilities and will push you harder than before. However, first time for a bit of a history lesson. History lesson that the Academy should have covered." Those last few words Kakashi said with venom Naruto never saw from his sensei.

o-0-o

Anko dropped Sakura on one of the larger branches of the outskirts of the Forest of Death and then looked at the younger kunoichi with contempt and irritation. "Kakashi-kun managed to convince me that I should train you," Anko said. "Now, tell me why should I do it."

Sakura was dazed for a second and several precious moments passed before she managed to put together her thoughts. "I was useless during our mission to Nami no Kuni," she said and sobbed. "Even Naruto-baka was better."

Anko tsked and Sakura looked at her, only to shriek when a cobra slid out of Anko's coat. "A lovely snake," Anko said with a fond smile, her hand caressing the head of the snake. "A king cobra, venomous and deadly. Just like I." Then she paused her musings and looked at Sakura. "I'll call you pinky for now. One, I really dislike your attitude and the way you call Naruto." Sakura was ready to speak, but Anko ignored it. "If you knew one of his parents, well, you would have bowed in front of him in apology. Heck, I'm surprised that Kakashi didn't tell you a thing or two about certain Hokage."

Anko frowned and then smiled. "For now this is enough chat," she smiled, her teeth flashing in a feral smile. "Time for fun."

"Sensei, what do you mean by fun?" Sakura asked.

"You run. I chase you." Anko said as she pulled out a kunai. "I will give you ten minutes of time to lose me. Then I will start."

Sakura looked at Anko, confusion clearly visible in her eyes. Then she noticed the kunai Anko was holding and started to run. Anko looked at the slowly disappearing form of Sakura and frowned. She really expected more from the best kunoichi of the year. Either the academic knowledge became so much more important or someone bent the rules.

Nowadays Anko didn't know which one was more probable, but the quick look at Sakura's files revealed nothing outstanding. Nothing, outside of her chakra control. A thing that wasn't an unusual thing considering the gender. Women in general tended to have finer control. What worried Anko was the behavior and the attitude Sakura had.

"She's adoring Sasuke," Anko murmured and sat down on the branch. "What will it take for her to realize that the Uchiha doesn't see her as anything more than a hindrance." She paused and looked at the canopy and the sparse rays of sunlight passing through it. "I bet he actually respects Naruto more."

"Jinchuuriki have power," Anko said and blew hair out of her eyes. "Even if they don't show it, their environment can feel or sense it. With the kid's parents being Yondaime-sama and an Uzumaki, he is bound to have more power than even Kyuubi would give on its own." She considered what she said for a moment and snorted. "I bet if the girl knew about his parents, she would have kissed his ass, just to have his attention.

"Now it is a time to see how much she knows," Anko said and got up, her hand reaching into one of the holsters for a couple of shuriken and a spool of ninja wire. She was going to test the girl, but she wanted to have fun, too.

o-0-o

Tenzo dropped Sasuke onto the concrete floor of the room, locked the door and then looked at the last loyal Uchiha. The boy was an enigma and one that smelled like Orochimaru, too. The reports from the Academy suggested that the boy was a prodigy and genius. Like any and all Uchiha before him.

Tenzo snorted and Sasuke looked up, his eyes filled with anger and resentment. "You are no prodigy," Tenzo said and smiled when Sasuke looked like he wanted to rip out his throat. "Itachi was, you are smart and intelligent boy that one day might become a capable shinobi. Now, now you are nothing."

Sasuke launched himself at Tenzo, who didn't even blink as he caught boy's punch before tossing him against the wall.

"You really have pride issues," Tenzo commented and pulled himself closer one of the chairs that were in the room. "The room is locked, I have the key and I won't let you out until I'm satisfied with your answers to my questions."

Sasuke managed to sat up and wiped the blood trickling down his chin. "What questions?" he asked and spat out some blood onto the floor. He then folded his arms in front of himself and looked at Tenzo with as much pride and arrogance as he could muster.

"About the team, the village and Itachi," Tenzo said and then looked at Sasuke. "Just so you know. I have been in ANBU, I worked with the people from T&I. If I want to, I can beat you to death and nobody will be able to tell it was me. It isn't a threat, just a suggestion that you behave."

"Hokage-sama wouldn't accept that I was killed," Sasuke cooly said and Tenzo nodded in agreement. "He would demand the head of one that killed me."

"Yes," Tenzo said and wondered if he should praise the brat for a bit of ability to think. Then he decided against it. For that the time would come later. "But again, thugs were known to pick on genin. Some nukenin could have always found you... Trust me, if I want you dead I will find a way to dispose of you."

"And what will I get if I work with you?"

"Perhaps a chance to kill Itachi," Tenzo said and then allowed himself a smile. "Or maybe become one of the greatest shinobi of your generation? Team Seven isn't a random team."

"The Sannin, Sandaime Hokage and Yondaime Hokage," Sasuke said after a moment of thought. "All of them were from this very Team."

"Yes. You have potential to become another great shinobi." At this Sasuke looked up. "But your attitude and behavior makes me wonder if you even realize how much diligence and determination and camaraderie is needed to reach the heights of your potential."

"Why would I need people to become a powerful shinobi?"

"Name me a single shinobi from those that you have mentioned that didn't have any support from their team."

Sasuke sat for several long moments on the cold floor, unable to form a single sentence of an answer as he slowly realized that there was no answer. No good answer. He opened his mouth, but then closed with an audible click.

"Yes," Tenzo said and then sat down, opposite of Sasuke. "Each of them became whom they were because of teamwork and camaraderie. On your own a genin might take on a weak chunin, a genin team might take on a jonin and walk away alive. Senju Hashirama, Shodaime Hokage, taught the shinobi that it isn't the individual power that matters, but the Will of Fire and that the village is a family."

"Why do you tell me?"

"Because you need to understand that even if you hate your team," Tenzo said and didn't miss the tension that flickered through Sasuke's body at the mention of the team. "You need them to achieve your goals. Let's talk about your team. What can you tell me about Naruto?"

"Has his insane amounts of chakra, but lacks any tactical thinking or the intelligence to plan a more effective solution," Sasuke said and frowned. "His usage of clones can be impressive."

Tenzo nodded and pulled out a small scroll. "You are mostly right about Naruto," he said and considered his next words. "Why do you think that he has such a poor understanding of tactics?"

Sasuke wanted to yell that it was because Naruto was stupid, but something in the behavior of Yamato put him on edge and told him this was not an answer that would be rewarded. "I don't know," he finally said.

"Because some morons that shouldn't have been shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato sabotaged his education," Tenzo said and allowed himself a faint smile. "They did it skillfully enough that nobody can pin the blame on them. Which doesn't change the fact that for a reason I cannot tell you, they sabotaged his education."

Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment and took several deep calming breaths. "I still don't trust you and think you won't teach me much," he said, almost spitting out those words. "But what you said makes some sense in my mind."

"I don't expect you to trust me, not now anyways," Tenzo said and got up. "All I expect now is obedience and that you will control your behavior. I won't teach you any new jutsu now, but we will work on skills that are equally important or should be. Assuming you want to ever beat your brother."

o-0-o

Kakashi landed with Naruto next to the sculpture of fire on the Konoha cemetery and then looked at the genin at his side. "What I'm about to show you is for you only Naruto," Kakashi said quietly as he walked through the cemetery. "You can share it with the team, but nobody else."

"Why?"

"Because while it isn't any kind of secret," Kakashi said as he eye-smiled at Naruto. "It is something that can be dangerous and some of us dislike being reminded about certain events from our history. Especially of how did we fail our allies during the events that started the Second war."

Naruto blinked at this and looked at Kakashi in some surprise. He rarely saw his sensei being so open about something.

"You have a clan, Naruto," Kakashi said and then grimaced, wincing painfully at the memories. "Or rather had, before it was killed at the beginning of the Second war by several villages that didn't want them to support Konoha." Naruto's eyes widened at this and Kakashi only nodded, the gesture slow and timid, yet showing some emotions. "Yes, your clan was so feared that other villages decided they didn't want to face you in fair combat. Well, as fair as any ninja battle is, and instead attacked without any forewarning."

Kakashi silenced Naruto and walked out of the cemetery and towards a monument showing a simple red spiral. "It was built when we learned that the village of your clan. Uzushiogakure no Sato was destroyed," Kakashi said and fell silent for several long moments. "This is as much as certain people would have been comfortable with you knowing. However, I spoke with the Sandaime and he agreed that I should show you some more."

Naruto looked unsure at Kakashi. Not that the jonin was surprised much, this was the first time when anybody told this kid anything about his family and the fact that he had a clan. Some saw Naruto as a weapon, some saw him as a demon incarnate and some as a problem that wasn't their problem to solve. And none of them had the capacity to treat Naruto as a shinobi that could be their greatest ninja in few dozen years if only given some other attention that hate and dislike the Konoha given him.

"Yes," Kakashi said quietly as he patted Naruto on the shoulder. "You had a clan, Naruto. However this name was given to you by the Hokage to conceal you from his enemies. It is a name of the clan of your mother." At this Kakashi visibly winced, memories of his sensei and Kushina-sama rushing forth. "She was a lover of a shinobi that had as many enemies, if not more, than has the Sandaime or other Kage."

"Whom was he?" Naruto asked, his voice cracking from emotions.

Kakashi eye-smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair. "I will tell you before the chunin exams. Now come with me," he murmured and guided the younger shinobi back into the cemetery and then into the part where important shinobi were buried. "The grave of your mother," he murmured, brushing the dust off the gravestone. "Uzumaki Kushina."

Naruto nodded and stood by Kakashi's side, looking at the gravestone with the name of his mother engraved. He never really had the family, nor anybody else that would love him. The closest to that was the Sandaime, but it wasn't a normal relationship that a kid would develop with their parents.

Kakashi's eye wandered to one of the closest graves, but then he suppressed this urge and looked once more at the grave of his sensei's wife. She was like his own mother to him for several years and he felt like he failed her during that fateful night. Kakashi shook his head and then looked at Naruto. "Stay here for as long as you want to, once done go to our usual Training Ground," he said and added in a more cheerful voice. "I need to retrieve some things buried in one of the armories of the village."

o-0-o

Anko hurled another kunai and cackled when Sakura screamed as she heard the weapon fly towards her. The girl was loud, that much Anko could give her. Beyond that so far she couldn't say anything. She didn't run fast, well, until Anko didn't start to toss kunai and shuriken in her wake.

"You will lose your voice if you keep being so loud," Anko yelled as she landed on a branch and watched Sakura. "Twenty more minutes and we will have a break."

"I can't keep going anymore," Sakura said as she stopped. Anko looked at the quivering and shuddering body of her student and frowned. The Academy students could run more than this. "I... never really trained properly."

Anko muttered several foul words under her breath and wanted to skin Kakashi, but then she sighed and looked at Sakura. "Five more minutes, pinky. After that we will do something else."

Sakura bit her lower lip and took off into the forest, leaving Anko alone for a second. The girl was an enigma, she was a fangirl, yet she was so much smarter than that. Anko couldn't understand why did she even become such a fangirl in the first place. She ought to be smarter than an average kid, yet she became a fangirl.

Anko leaped after Sakura and as she hurled another kunai towards the pinky she realized one thing. That the girl was from civilian background and that she could have been pushed towards being a fangirl by her parents. Or just she had bad ideas when she enrolled into the Academy. Many girls wanted to marry shinobi from the clans because it meant influence, prestige and money. In case of the clans that were old, like Senju, Uchiha or Hyuuga the amount of influence and money was insane.

"That could explain it," Anko said as she hurled yet another kunai. "She thinks that she looks good enough and some rich ninja will notice and marry her." Then the purple haired kunoichi scoffed. "As if they cared only about looks and it was so simple for them to marry. Especially if they're from the clans."

She wanted to strangle Kakashi for being so moronic and not making the kids realize how the world of shinobi looked. Yet she knew she couldn't quite blame him, while the Academy was a cuddly place, some kind of impression of the world should have been passed onto them. Unless Sakura was too focused on being a fangirl that it flew past her, but then she was supposed to be smart.

Anko landed next to Sakura and gave her a look for of pity. The girl's clothes were a torn mess, kunai and shuriken did their job after all. Showing her that perhaps it was a time to consider a change . Physically she wasn't much better, bruises, scratches and a couple of cuts, even if Anko didn't try to actually hit the girl.

"I don't think that I need to tell you that you are a wreck physically, do I?" Anko asked and Sakura shook her head in a manner that told Anko more than she expected. The girl wasn't tired, she was plain exhausted and probably wanting to just collapse. "Good, that's what we're gonna work for the next several weeks or months. Also, girlie. Did you think what do you want to specialize in?"

"No, Anko-sensei," Sakura said and gave Anko a very weary smile. "In the Academy they didn't tell us what are the options."

"Because they shouldn't have," Anko said and Sakura blinked. "The Academy is mostly to weed out those completely unsuited to the role of the shinobi of Konoha. Then it is up to you and your sensei, in this case me and Kakashi, to grow and develop and in our case to help you in it."

Sakura nodded, leaned back against the tree trunk and started to clean her injuries.

"Tomorrow once you're less ragged," Anko said and sat down looking into Sakura's eyes. "I'll tell you what are your options and what would I suggest. Now however, tell me about your family."

o-0-o

Morino Ibiki was not a name many shinobi wanted to hear and even less wanted to know that he paid them any attention. At best it meant stress, at the worst imprisonment or outright execution. Konoha valued its teamwork, but it even more hated traitors and those that plotted against it. Nobody was outside of his reach and nobody could feel safe when his attention was attracted by some group.

However for once most of the shinobi was blissfully unaware of his activities and probably happy that someone else was the one that attracted his attention and ire. As it best it meant just disrupted operations and administrative problems, assuming nothing was found.

Placing a stack of papers on his desk Ibiki sat down and looked at them. The documents were incomplete and he knew that. Yet he knew that the missing pieces for once were out of his reach as they were held by Danzo and the last thing he wanted was to ask that thrice damned mummy for help.

The chance that he would receive what he asked for was slim and the chance that he received something that would damn several Konoha shinobi was high. Danzo was a slimy being and one whose goals rarely aligned with those of the Hokage, yet never strayed too far away. Just the means did. Long ago Danzo was an idol for Ibiki, the Uchiha massacre changed everything. It was that bastard that ordered elimination of the whole Uchiha clan. Just because majority decided to carry out a coup.

Ibiki heard the lock in the doors of his office open croak and groan and as he looked up they opened. Yamanaka Inoichi walking through. "Who is our target this time?"

"Danzo," Ibiki said and waited for their patriarch of the Yamanaka clan to sit down. "Well, the Hokage wants him scared and the ROOT chased back into deeper shadows."

"Not an easy thing," Inoichi muttered. "He is skilled and knows how we operate. And has spies everywhere. Including our people."

Ibiki nodded and looked at the files between them. "I'm quite curious how many ANBU are his," he said and allowed himself a grim smile. "If they're clear, then we can clean our house. ANBU can do more and nobody asks them strange questions."

"People fear them," Inoichi said as he took the first file from the list. "They fear them and know that they are being watched if they see ANBU. While we seem like your average shinobi and not so dangerous."

"That is also true." Ibiki nodded and then smiled. "The Hokage also suspects that Orochimaru might be up."

"That snake is up to something. Always. He can't stomach the fact that he wasn't chosen as the Yondaime and since then he is bitter that Konoha ignored him and his talents. There are also his experiments and the things he had done."

"What experiments?" Ibiki asked looking up. "I never saw the documents about them."

"Because all was destroyed on the orders of the Hokage," Inoichi said and paused for a second. "As I think about it. Danzo could have gotten a hold of some of them. And for sure he acquired at least a single subject."

"Yamato."

"Aye," Inoichi said and allowed himself a smile. "Kakashi did Konoha a service when he managed to pull Yamato out of the ROOT. If he stayed there, he would have been an assassin almost impossible to stop and powerful enough to fear, even by a Kage. Now, now he can serve the Hokage and be an uncomfortable dagger pointed at Danzo's back."

"Could he kill the old warhawk?" Ibiki mused loudly.

"If my suspicious are right, killing Danzo will be a problem," Inoichi said and frowned. "But he should be able to wound him enough for someone else to finish the job. That aside, what do you think about Team Seven?"

"They're a trouble magnet," Ibiki said and laughed. "I will be surprised if they stay out of troubles during their training. The son of the former Hokage, the heir of the Uchiha clan and a civilian. They will attract all kinds of attention. Nobles, other Kage, Bingo books creators, nukenin, bounty hunters." The scarred jonin shrugged. "The question is, how much can we limit their exposure to this kind of attention."

"Kakashi doesn't help," Inoichi said with a wince. "Granted, he was the only logical choice to teach the Uchiha. But the amount of bounties on his head and whom is his sensei won't make our job easier."

"Actually it might help us," Ibiki said and smiled at the confusion he could see in the eyes of Inoichi. "He is an ex-ANBU, he knows how to catch the spies and keep them away. So most will stay a safe distance away. Getting caught spying on a team is not the best outcome. After all we would be very curious as to why." Ibiki finished with a cold, predatory smile.

o-0-o

Yamato looked at Sasuke and then looked at the scorched log in front of the Uchiha. The Katon jutsu wasn't as strong as he expected, but it was adequate for this age group. It also hinted that the boy didn't do any elemental manipulation training.

"Not bad, Sasuke-kun," Yamato said and the Uchiha looked at him, before nodding. "I know that as a Uchiha you need to know this jutsu because it is that of your clan and Katon is your affinity. But did you do any elemental manipulation exercises?"

"I was supposed to start, but then..."

"The Massacre happened," Yamato finished with a nod. "That will be something to work on. Same as maybe a new jutsu or two."

At the word jutsu Sasuke's eyes shone and it put Yamato on edge. Immediately. He could feel the hunger for power in the gaze and he knew where this could lead. So perhaps it was a time to keep access of the boy to new jutsu limited.

"Only when I deem that you are less hostile towards your peers," Yamato added after a moment of consideration. He then smiled and looked at the sun. "I read the report from your last mission and I know that you managed to wake up your dojutsu. The Sharingan."

"Yes, sensei," Sasuke said, not a single trace of emotions in his voice. "I did it when, I and Naruto, fought against Haku. That boy that used Hyoton."

"You won't use it when training with me," Yamato said and silenced Sasuke's outburst with an angry look. "Yes, it is a powerful tool. But you need to know how to fight without it."

"Why? Uchiha's strength is the Sharingan."

Yamato smiled at this. "Activate it and try to stop me."

Sasuke nodded and the moment his eyes became red and black of the Sharingan Yamato dropped several smoke bombs onto the ground and hurled himself. The smoke on its own was not an issue for the Sharingan, bright flashes that accompanied it...

Yamato's hand moved and smashed into Sasuke's jaw. His head jerked backwards and he was thrown out of the smoke. He smashed into the long he previously scorched and finally stopped moving.

"Bright ligth can be your curse," Yamato said with a smile. "Bright light, at night, that's even worse. Your eyes are attracted by flashy things. If your enemy knows you have Sharingan they will throw a lot of flashy things and bright. Just to hurt your eyes and force you to close them."

Sasuke groaned and slowly he got up. He blinked as tears streamed out of his abused eyes. "You could have warned me."

"You wouldn't have learned," Yamato said and then smiled. "At least for what I have next in mind you won't need your eyes." He walked to a nearby tree and looked at its trunk. "I heard that Kakashi showed you how to walk up and down a tree. I don't trust him. So shom me."

o-0-o

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, stood on the roof of his office and looked at the village stretching in all directions. Finally, twelve years after the Kyuubi was unleashed on the tenth of October the village mostly recovered. The dead wouldn't be replaced for the generations to come, but the scars healed and people mostly forgot about the whole ordeal.

He took the hat after the death of Minato because someone needed to step up and take the heavy and unforging mantle for themselves. And he was the best choice as the interim Hokage, to see the village recover from the worst of the damage. Now however, twelve years passed and he once again felt a burden of leadership.

A burden that should be taken by the younger generation. Yet there was not a single shinobi that could take it. Kakashi was scarred by war, Tsunade, too. Jiraiya was too precious outside of Konoha, roaming the lands and gathering the information. Which didn't leave him with too many other choices. Out of the clan heads the only one that came to his mind was Shikaku, cold and analytical, but also flexible enough to hold the position.

Minato had been an ideal candidate for the title, strong and an intelligent shinobi that was respected by other ninja nations and daimyos. Yet he died so young and that left Hiruzen with no choices for the successor. He should have been watching the shinobi closer, looking for an heir that could take the hat when the time was right. Now he needed to do it in hurry. He was not getting any younger and the death would come, sooner or later.

And there was always Danzo, always hungry for power. Still sore that Tobirama-sensei didn't name him the Hokage. The hunger in Shimura Danzo was a thing that unsettled Hiruzen, his old teammate was a being that was like Orochimaru, just much smarter and more experienced. So even if he did something highly illegal the chance that there was evidence to find was almost nonexistent and the ROOT was useful at times.

o-0-o

Kakashi walked through the high halls of one of the underground arsenals built before the Second Shinobi World War. It had been since then stacked with dozens of thousands of kunai, shuriken and multitude of other weapons and armor used by the shinobi of Konoha. Its location deep underground prevented it from being discovered by most spies and in cases of extreme emergency it could be used to protect the civilians.

However none of those weapons weren't his target at the moment. He was here for the personal possessions of the former Hokage. Getting the Sandaime to agree to his request took some time, but it ought to be worth it. Well, that was what Naruto would believe. In truth Kakashi ignored what the Hokage told him.

There was a time for thinking and there was one for action. Now it was the second and he needed some push for Naruto to really focus. Giving him jutsu was pointless as he lacked the finer understanding necessary to use them safely. On the other hand, giving him some information about the past was much safer and less burdened with immediate risk.

He was more than aware of the possible bull's eye he was painting on Naruto's back, but at the same time he didn't have much to lose. With that gloomy thought Kakashi stopped in front of the armored door barring him access and pressed his palm against the cold steel of the door. If his access as ANBU Captain wasn't removed, he would enter. If it was, then he would be lucky to lose his hand...

**o-0-o**

**A/N – Don't hate me for cliffhangers, they're too nice not to use them.**

**Kakashi didn't reveal that much information to Naruto and he needs an outside shove to actually work his ass off. Outside of telling him whom his dad was it was the safest choice. He could have done other things, but ignoring Hokage's wishes would be very like Kakashi.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N – Another chapter, more training and more fun. And some major pushing forth the plot. For those that wonder when the time will actually move, it should be soon. Just need to do several things before it.**

**o-0-o**

Kakashi was more than aware of the possible bull's eye he was painting on Naruto's back, but at the same time he didn't have much to lose. With that gloomy thought Kakashi stopped in front of the armored door barring him access and pressed his palm against the cold steel of the door. If his access as ANBU Captain wasn't removed, he would enter. If it was, then he would be lucky to lose his hand.

For a second nothing happened. The steel as cold as it should be, then a pattern became visible. Lines of ink exploded from his hand and spread over the whole surface of the door before briefly flashing blue.

A lock clicked somewhere inside and the door opened. A wave of stale air rushed and once it passed him Kakashi entered. The things stored here usually weren't known to even highly trusted and experienced jonin. They were the personal belongings of the current and former Hokages and Kakashi was pretty sure that several of them went missing in recent years.

Of course those were just his suspicions and he could be wrong, but he trusted them more than he trusted several of his fellow shinobi. He shook his head, chasing away the thought and focused on the task at hand. It would be bad enough on its own, he never really came to terms with the fact that he failed his sensei on that night and what he would find would make all of those things rear their ugly heads.

He squashed those thoughts and then pushed them aside as he stopped in front of one of the many chests and other containers thrown onto the shelves and between them. There was seemingly no order to the madness, however it was mostly to fool thieves that somehow managed to enter the vault.

He kneeled and brushed aside the dust and cobwebs that covered the lacquered wood with a spiral visible in the middle of it. "Let's hope they didn't put their devilish seals on it," Kakashi murmured as inspected the lock and started to pick it.

Lockpicking was one of the skills that all of the ANBU seemed to posses and after a second Kakashi was done with the last barrier between the content of the chest and him. He slowly lifted the lid and smiled under his mask at what he found. Several scrolls on sealing were a useful thing, but not now. Not until Naruto was better at the basics and had some kind of self-control.

What one could do with seals was too dangerous and powerful to be given to a green genin. A green genin that had their education sabotaged because several people were biased towards him. Kakashi muttered a choice of foul words under his breath and continued rummaging, a thick scroll with the sign of the Uzumaki clan was what he was looking for.

Their Kekkei Genkai should be waking up any time soon and the sooner Naruto knew what it was, the better. The chains were at best an annoyance and at worst an extremely lethal weapon that laughed at most of the attempts to counter it. In the times when survivors of the Uzumaki clan were more common the way of defending against them was taught.

Now, Kakashi allowed himself a grim, satisfied smile. Now, not many jonin would know how to deal with a pissed off Uzumaki that wanted their heads. If Naruto got the hang of the basics before the exam started Kakashi didn't want to imagine what kind of trouble the other genin would be.

If they had any kind of sanity, they would drop whatever was that Naruto wanted and run in the opposite direction. If they fought him with the chains already flying around, they were incredibly stupid and unlucky. Kakashi had enough nightmares of Kushina-sama using her chains against him in more heated spars and he didn't want to ever again face them. Granted, Naruto wouldn't have the same proficiency for years, but against a genin any chain would be enough.

Kakashi shook his head, getting his thoughts back to the content of the chest and after pulling out the scroll a small bundle wrapped in silk cloth revealed itself. He pulled it out and unwrapped. A chokuto in a black lacquered wooden scabbard revealed itself and Kakashi knew it was what he looked for.

"Now, just need to teach him how to use it and he will be a problem," he said and locked the chest. The rest Naruto could get when he was older.

With those found Kakashi slipped out of the vault and locked the door behind himself. Only to find the Sandaime Hokage waiting for him.

"The seal that acts as a lock informs the current Hokage," the Sandaime said, looked at Kakashi and then at what Kakashi was holding. "I suspected that you would ignore me and try to take those."

Kakashi shrugged and looked at the Hokage. "He needs the push and out of all of the things I could find. Those are the safest and best to give him."

The Hokage hummed and extended his hand. "Give me the scroll," he said in a tone that left no room for arguments.

Kakashi hesitated for a second, but then relented and handed it over. He knew he was out of his league here, he could kill any Kage maybe bar Tsuchikage if allowed to take his time and prepare for the mission. In a straight up fight he didn't stand a chance.

"He will need it," the Hokage said after a moment. "Did he unlock the Kekkei Genkai?"

"Not yet, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said. "I think however that it will happen soon. Maybe in the next few weeks. It might be due to his bad chakra control that he wasn't able to manifest those chains or because he didn't know and didn't believe he has a Kekkei Genkai."

"That could have been a reason," the Hokage mused quietly. "The mind is a powerful thing and I feared that if I mention it to him he can dig out things he shouldn't have found at his age."

"Like the piles of corpses of those that wanted him dead?" Kakashi asked cooly, ignoring the anger of the Hokage. "Oh, I don't mean the civilians and the ninja. Just those few thugs that were hired because someone decided they don't like him. Or because they thought that he would have been a good addition to their forces."

The Hokage tensed for several moments where Kakashi was sure that the aged leader would attack him. But then Shinobi no Kami nodded and relaxed. "Yes, among other things that I believed he wasn't ready for."

"He should have learned it when he was enrolled into the Academy," Kakashi said and then eye-smiled. "However, Hokage-sama, if you allow me, I will be able to repair some of the damage done and he should grow into a powerful shinobi."

o-0-o

Jiraiya frowned as he read a message given to him by a monkey sent by his sensei. He never expected the sensei to actually act so decisively and so fast. And it seemed that he was more sane than Jiraiya gave him a credit for, a pleasant surprise for once.

"So he expects the snake to do something," Jiraiya murmured and smiled. "Means that it is a time to take a look at Ta no Kuni."

He then looked at the monkey and smiled. "You wait for any messages I'll have for Sarutobi-sensei?"

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama," the monkey said.

"Tell him that I will visit the small countries on my way to Konoha and give him more details in say six weeks once I will be in Konoha."

The summon disappeared and Jiraiya sighed. He really ought to see his godson, but the duty to the village came first and the smaller countries surrounding Konoha were always a dangerous place. After serving as a battlefield for three major wars and dozens of smaller skirmishes the inhabitants didn't love Konoha much and while in theory Taki and Kusa were in a way allied to Konoha they weren't real allies. And if given a suitably convincing opportunity they could flip allegiances and stab Konoha the moment it looked not at them.

For all the disguist and hate Jiraiya felt for his former teammate, he needed to agree that Orochimaru was shrewd and charismatic and slimy. Just like a snake, a thing that made him so dangerous and unpredictable. And at the same time so charming in the strange way. A thing that worked against Konoha now and Jiraiya wasn't very happy about it.

"They hate us," Jiraiya said and looked towards the horizon. "They hate all of the great villages for the wars we waged on their soil. And nobody did a thing to help them recover after the last war."

He shook his head in disgust and started to walk towards the first stop, Kusagakure no Sato. The village that in theory was the closest to Konoha and didn't actively oppose it in the past. He had a tiny sliver of hope in his heart that they would remember about the alliance and wouldn't be willing to work with Orochimaru.

The reasonable part of his mind told him that the moment they saw anybody wanting to have a revenge against Konoha, they would join. The grudges and pain took a long time to heal and the memories and scars of the last war were still fresh in the memories of most leaders. A thing that would take a really, really long time to be forgotten and a thing that could be exploited extremely easily by someone as charismatic as Orochimaru.

o-0-o

Ibiki sighed as he finished reading last document and looked at the pile of notes he and Inoichi made about most of the ANBU. He had higher expectations about some of those ninja, out of the eight hundred active ninja in all of the ANBU squads ten were plain and obvious spies. While data on thirteen more was so spotty it raised dozens of red flags in Ibiki's mind.

"Twenty-three spies," Inoichi said. "I expected some more of those with spotty data. I bloody know that Danzo has access to every single file, but still. He can't be that good."

"More will reveal themselves once we crack down on those we found now," Ibiki said and frowned. "I will talk with the Hokage and once he gives go ahead we will begin."

"His teammate might have something to say. Especially if the people we found are on his payroll."

"If he is stupid, he will move," Ibiki said and then smiled. "But if he is smart, he will hunker down and hope we don't see him. Political consequences are bad enough for him as is. The more motivated we are to dig, the worse it will be."

"He has a lot of skeletons in his closet," Inoichi said and sighed. "If we mess up, the Hokage will skin us alive. Probably half of the experiments of Orochimaru are connected to him. Uchiha clan mess and many more."

Ibiki nodded and gathered his notes before stalking out of the room. The talk with the Hokage was going to be a tough one. Even if he had the trust of the Hokage, Danzo was a teammate of Hiruzen and usually most ninja trusted their team first, then everybody else. And more often than not had issues accepting that their teammates could do something so hideous as plot against the village or scheme against them. While there was no concrete evidence of the second, of the first Ibiki had more than enough of evidence. Most of which wasn't very concrete, but more than what he had would be a miracle.

"We are too damn good at hiding our tracks," he muttered darkly. "Even when I want to find someone, I cannot pin them down."

Being the head of Torture & Interrogation came with several perks, one of which was an unrestricted access to the Hokage so when Ibiki appeared in the tower he wasn't barred access. Even if several nobles and merchants waited for their time to speak with the leader of the village. He ignored their glares and walked into the office. Where the presence of the advisors of the Hokage was an unpleasant annoyance.

"Hokage-sama," Ibiki said with a nod of his head as he completely disregarded Koharu and Homura. He never really trusted them and his suspicions suggested that they were up to something. "I have some grave news, for your ears only."

"Whatever you want to tell the Hokage, you can also tell us," Utatane Koharu said and Ibiki glared at the elder woman. "We advise the Hokage on all matters of importance."

Ibiki regarded her with silence for few precious seconds before allowing himself a cold, unpleasant smile. "Even on those regarding your missing teammate?" he asked after a second and smiled when Koharu and Mitokado Homura, second advisor, recoiled as if struck by some insult.

"Ibiki, don't insult my advisors," the Hokage said and Ibiki nodded, bowing his head in apology. "I'm afraid that you need to leave us."

Ibiki could see that the advisors wanted to argue, but after few moments nodded and shuffled out. He could have played it more gently, without making them angry at him and without forcing the Hokage to act, but he didn't have the patience for it.

"What did you find, Ibiki-kun?" the Hokage asked as they were alone. The ANBU guarding the Hokage also gone, as well as those that watched over the safety of his advisors. "And why do you think that my advisors plot against Konoha?"

"I didn't say that they plot against Konoha," Ibiki said and then placed all of the notes he made on the desk. "I just don't trust them not to babble about everything they will hear to Danzo."

"Do you think that they trust him more than they trust me?" the Hokage said as he reached for the notes Ibiki made. "That they would scheme against me."

"I don't have any concrete evidence," Ibiki said and winced. "I wish I had, but Danzo for all of his sins is an experienced shinobi that knows how to avoid getting caught. And I fear that what I so far found is only the tip of the iceberg and that the worst things will be revealed once I can interrogate those that I found so far."

"He was always ruthless," the Hokage said and flinched. "Tobirama-sensei didn't think he was a good person to be the next Hokage and that rejection possibly made him even more ruthless. I trusted him and he did the things Konoha could never acknowledge… Now he strayed too far from the goals of Konoha."

"I believe that most of the shinobi I suspect of being spies is answering to him," Ibiki said and considered his next few words extremely carefully. "With Hokage-sama permission I will arrest all of them and have Inoichi take a look at their minds. Hopefully some will be innocent and the rest can be dealt with appropriately."

"You have my permission," the Hokage said. "Next time you will have something to report. Send a chunin or jonin and make them notify me so that I can keep my advisors busy elsewhere."

"Of course, Hokage-sama," Ibiki said with a bow before shuffling out of the office.

o-0-o

Naruto yawned as he looked at the sky. Kakashi-sensei told him to go to the Training Ground the Team Seven used and wait for him there. Patience wasn't Naruto's most known trait and waiting for his sensei for hours wasn't an easy thing.

Yet there was something that kept him waiting there. He couldn't name the thing that kept him there, however he managed to stay there awaiting the arrival of his sensei. Who showed up almost two hours later with a thick bundle in his hands.

"I'm impressed," Kakashi said and Naruto looked at him. "You actually waited for me."

Naruto looked at his sensei, a small burst of pride forming inside of him at the praise. "Something made me wait for you," the boy said without lying and Kakashi eye-smiled at him.

"Good, now come here," the jonin said as he kneeled on the grass and unwrapped the bundle. Placing something that looked like a sword next to a thick scroll.

Naruto scrambled from the place where he was laying and almost ran to his sensei before coming to halt barely in front of the silver-haired jonin. "What is it, Kakashi-sensei?"

"All in due time," Kakashi said and took his time, looking at the sword and the scroll. "There is much more to them than you can see. There is even more of your inheritance, but you aren't ready to receive more… energetic parts of it. Tho, perhaps better would be calling them explosive and deadly."

Naruto blinked in surprise and looked at his sensei, then at the things between them. "What do you mean, sensei?"

"Fuinjutsu," Kakashi said, slowly pronouncing the word. "The art of sealing, the explosive notes you use on kunai are the most crude and basic example of the art. I know the basics of it, but I won't teach you anything. That will be a task of someone who needs to return to Konoha once they fulfill their current mission."

"Kaka-sensei," Naruto whined. "Why can't you teach me it?"

"Because I don't want to spend hours scrapping your remains from the ground," Kakashi stated flatly and sighed. "Fuinjutsu is dangerous, even if someone has all the theoretical knowledge they need."

"Eh…"

Kakashi's eye could express emotions, yet at the reaction of his student he didn't have any idea what he could do or how should he react. He knew that the kid had the brains and the potential, just buried under meters of bad habits, lack of motivation and several other less than pleasant things.

"Give me a definition of chakra," Kakashi said.

"It is the energy that we use for jutsu, right?" Naruto asked and made his sensei sweatdrop in exasperation.

"Yes, we do use it for our jutsu," Kakashi grumbled. "And yes, it is a form of energy, but you didn't tell me anything about it. It is composed of two things, spiritual energy from the mind and the physical energy from the body. Or also called yin and yang."

Naruto glared at him and Kakashi only shrugged. The kid would learn or he would be damned and even if he was easy-going and friendly, there were ways to make him much less friendly and much more demanding.

"Naruto," Kakashi said quietly, all of his kindness gone. "You have the potential and I know that you can be smarter than you show to be. I knew both of your parents and one thing I couldn't tell about them was that they were dumb. So, tell me, how much did you lie and fake things in the Academy?"

Naruto stared wide-eyed at him and Kakashi allowed himself a smile under his mask. He got the reaction he wanted, the kid wasn't as dumb as he thought and possibly a lot of his behavior in the Academy was not a real thing. Granted, a lot of it was thanks to some chunin that should have sooner or later a date with Ibiki, but most likely not all.

"Do you really think that even if you can fool chunin at the Academy," Kakashi said with some distaste. "Most of which was given the spot because it was the only spot where they couldn't cause too much damage. You can fool someone like me?"

Naruto's eyes widened even more and Kakashi laughed at this.

"You want attention," Kakashi stated flatly and Naruto only nodded. "And since you couldn't keep up with Sasuke, you decided to go down the route of I'm the worst, look at me." Naruto only nodded and Kakashi continued. "And the teachers with what they did didn't help you in getting better in any way. Tho the fact that you actually graduated, says something about you as only a total idiot wouldn't pass the Academy."

Naruto starred at him, eyes widened and bright. Making Kakashi think about a different situation from his own genin times when Namikaze Minato, his beloved sensei, needed to deal with Obito. Kakashi felt as if Kami was laughing at him for being the best genin on his team. That it was not his trouble to explain the basics to his genin, one of which slept through and didn't pay much attention at the Academy.

"That will take a lot of time to fix," Kakashi said and then looked at the scroll and the sword between them. "That sword is the one used by your mother during the war and as for the scroll. It describes the Kekkei Genkai of your clan. A thing called Kongo Fusa, chains made out of pure chakra that have multitude of uses on the battlefield and outside of it."

"What uses?" Naruto asked, most of the mirth and happiness gone from his eyes. Reminding Kakashi very much of Minato-sensei when he was musing on some jutsu.

"Pinning your enemies to trees, skewering them, chasing them and so on," Kakashi said with an eye-smile. "Those are the ways your mother used them, or well, I saw her use them in this way."

"That's cool!" Naruto exclaimed.

"And very useful," Kakashi added and stood up. "However, now time to go back to basics. Chakra control."

o-0-o

Shikaku yawned as he sipped his sake and looked at the shogi board placed between him and Inoichi. "So, the ANBU is as full of spies as I suspected?"

"Less so," Inoichi said as he moved a piece across the board. "Danzo is clever. Too clever even."

"Yet even he can make mistakes," Shikaku countered and pieces once more clicked across the board. "Not a single plan is perfect and no amount of preparations can see it finished. He is used to the fact that he is ignored by us. You and Ibiki probably unsettled him and you know to what it leads." Patriarch of the Nara clan smiled. "You study psychology more than I do."

"Aye," Inoichi said with a grim smile. "Mistakes and accidents. Ones you would normally avoid." He moved his piece and looked at Shikaku. "How soon do you think he will do something rash?"

Shikaku rubbed his chin and looked at the board. "Hard to tell. He knows the game very well and knows that mistakes might hasten his fall. I think that he will wait for the moment when most of his agents. Well, those he thinks we should be able to catch is arrested." Another piece was moved on the board and one removed as Shikaku sipped his sake. "He is old and knows that the sooner he moves, the more we can tell about his whole network. What I would do if I were him would be to hide the assets I need and throw at us chaff."

"So that we chase false leads and he sits happy and smug," Inoichi continued. "He knows all of our standard procedures and knows how to avoid them so he will be a pain."

"A huge pain," Shikaku corrected with a small smile. "And there are reports from several places that he isn't the only one that wants to cause chaos."

"Who?"

"Hard to say," Shikaku said and yawned. "Jiraiya-sama was sent to check several rumors. It's either our friend, Orochimaru, or someone else that also wants attention."

"That snake should have been beheaded long ago," Inoichi said and groaned. "Why did Hokage-sama decide to let him live that time he was caught robbing graves?"

"Because for all the toughness and ruthlessness Hokage-sama is capable of, he is still a kind and gentle man. And one that has too much trust in humans. A thing I never expected to say about a fellow shinobi," Shikaku said and refilled his cup with more sake. "He is also tired by the burden of leadership. He is a great leader, but the amount of deaths he ordered and what happened to his wife drags him down. If he had a good successor, he would have stepped down ages ago."

"Speaking about shinobi," Inoichi said and studied the board before moving another piece. "Sasuke-kun, as he is called by Ino, who the hell thought to allow him to graduate the Academy?"

"What do you mean?" Shikaku asked with some genuine interest.

"Psych evaluation," Inoichi said and shrugged. "That boy is an avenger bent on murdering his brother, shows psychopathic tendencies and has almost no respect for authorities. I didn't do it, but I saw it and even Kakashi isn't that fucked up mentally."

"I wonder how I never saw this," Shikaku mused. "I should have seen it since I am the current jonin commander and I can block such a questionable promotion."

"I guess they wanted their precious Uchiha promoted," Inoichi said and looked at the sake bottle. "I can see why do you drink so much."

"The Council is unhappy," Shikaku said and groaned. "Their bickering at the best of times is irritating. Today it was headaches inducing and apparently Hokage-sama told them to get lost and they didn't appreciate this gesture. Not that I am terribly surprised. I don't have much trust for them and the further away they are from the most secret plans, the better."

"Speaking about that precious Uchiha," Inoichi said and Shikaku looked at him. "Tenzo might be able to knock some sense into his head. If not I might be forced to step in and take a more direct approach to the problem of the mentally unstable ticking time bomb."

"Which might cool some heads," Shikaku said and mused quietly. "And the exams are coming. Six months from now we should host them and the Team Seven…"

"Will be supposed to bring fame and glory to Konoha," Inoichi said and grimaced. "Inflating the ego of Uchiha even more. Kakashi cannot not submit them, if he did that, the council would have his head."

"Kakashi forgets politics," Shikaku said with a faint smile as he returned his whole attention to the board. "He might do something unpredictable."

o-0-o

Tenzo grunted as he caught Sasuke's strike and then hurled the boy backwards. He certainly hit hard and knew how to exploit even the smallest weakness. "Not bad," Tenzo said and looked at the scrambling boy. "You certainly are fast."

"I need to be fast to kill my brother," Sasuke said as he hurled a handful of shuriken and charged at Tenzo. "I need to be stronger and faster than him."

Tenzo didn't say anything, instead he pulled out a kunai and deflected the coming shuriken. He then moved out of the way of Sasuke in the last moment and sent a powerful kick towards his back. The boy barely managed to move mostly out of the way, but the strike still almost shattered several of his ribs.

"But don't think in combat," Tenzo said as he looked at his student. "I could have used my ninjato and slice across the back of your knees. Or aim a kick at one of the knees."

Sasuke glared as he slowly moved. His moves pained and slow, the pain visible in his expression. "Why do you do this?" he asked. "That could have killed me."

"Because you think you are invincible and that your name is everything," Tenzo said and gave him a look. "I can kill you in dozens of ways and you have no way of stopping me, yet you think that you can stand a chance against me. Wake up!"

o-0-o

Anko looked at Sakura and smiled as she played with her kunai. "So, pinky, what do you really know about shinobi?" Anko asked and seeing the confusion, added. "Well, outside of what the Academy teaches."

"Not much, Anko-sensei," Sakura said. "My family previously lived in one of the normal towns. Not in a hidden village."

"Oh," Anko said as she realized why Sakura was so clueless about some stuff. "Well, you will have a crash course from that from me. Thing number one, why do you think only three teams out of each class have any worthwhile sensei?"

"Because we lack enough of experienced and trained jonin?" Sakura guessed.

"Well, you are wrong," Anko said and smiled. "We need cannon fodder. Cheap and expendable cannon fodder. One that we can spend cheaply and avoid too many political headaches when they die."

"That's… that's cruel."

"That's life, girl," Anko corrected her. "In some situations it is easier to sacrifice a team of genin instead of a team of chunin or jonin. And not everybody is good enough to be promoted to chunin. In case of the three teams in each class we believe that the genin that form them have the potential to be worthy investing in their training and education. Even a village as rich as Konoha and with as many jonin as we have, still needs a substantial number of its jonin free at all times to carry out A-rank and tougher missions.

"The world of ninja is based on power and money. The more difficult the mission the more money the village gets paid and the more prestige it has. As for power, the stronger the Kage and jonin, the better. Training you, genin, to even a chunin level is not cheap. It pulls away our most experienced and famous ninja from doing the missions we get paid extremely well and instead it saddles them with three kids they need to watch."

"It's a cruel and inhumane," Sakura said, shaking her head.

"Girl, be lucky you are not in Kiri," Anko said and shook her head. "Their genin exam until few years ago was that you needed to kill your best friend. Or be killed by them. Here we don't kill genin, well, not outright anyways and we give you all time to develop. Just some have more of it."

"Why do you tell me all of this, Anko-sensei?"

"To make you realize that our lives aren't all roses," Anko said and stood up. "We lie, steal, kill as the Kage and Daimyo wishes us. For most of the citizens we are heroes or monsters, depending on whom you ask. Yet we do things most of us isn't proud and in many cases can't even mention them to anybody." She dusted off her coat and looked at Sakura. "Time for some exercises for you."

At those words Sakura groaned as she stood up and looked expectantly at her sensei. Anko's ideas of physical exercises were at best grueling, and at the worst an outright torture. She had a reputation after all to maintain and going soft on a genin was not a good option.

"Do those exercises I showed you yesterday," Anko said and smiled. "Once we are done for today. I will invite yourself to your parents for a chat."

"What?" Sakura sputtered as she crashed onto the ground.

"Just usual chit-chat with your parents," Anko said and shrugged. "Doing something Kakashi should have done, but probably didn't because he is a lazy being."

o-0-o

Kakashi watched as Naruto raced up and down the tree, over and over again. The boy had a lot of stubbornness and determination. Two things that were of such a great use now. Dangle in front of his eyes a reward and he would work day and night just to get it. For once life was good for Kakashi, letting him enjoy the fruits of his teaching and ponder what to do next.

Perhaps it was the time to visit a blacksmith he trusted with the remnants of the family sword. If Naruto was getting a sword someone needed to teach him the basics and while he could probably ask Uzuki Yugao to teach Naruto once he got the basics down. Someone needed to teach him those basics.

He shook his head and looked up the tree, to see the blonde once again race up the tree. With that exercise done, perhaps it was a time for Naruto to take a shot at water walking. It would certainly help him later on and the chakra chains needed a nearly flawless, for an Uzumaki that is, chakra control.

"That's enough for now, Naruto!" Kakashi yelled and the blonde dropped onto the ground. "Time for you to learn something new."

"What is it sensei? A jutsu?" Naruto asked, hopeful excitement visible in his voice.

"No," Kakashi said and seeing slumping form of Naruto, he added. "Still, it is something cool." He walked closer to a nearby stream and Naruto followed him. "Do you remember how I walked in Nami on the water?"

Naruto nodded energetically, making Kakashi smile. The verbal tick was the more obvious trait inherit by Naruto from Kushina, but his sheer energy and enthusiasm also came from somewhere.

"The principle is the same," Kakashi said as he walked onto the surface of the stream. "The water however is a liquid body that changes as opposed to something solid like a block of stone or a tree trunk. While walking up a tree trunk you need a steady pulse of chakra, here…"

"I need to adjust it to the water and the way it changes," Naruto finished.

"Exactly," Kakashi said and then smiled. "The more you train, the easier for you it will be to finally unlock your Kekkei Genkai and once you do that I will show you a useful advantage of the _Kage Bunshin_."

**o-0-o**

**A/N – Naruto's intelligence, yes, he is smart and you can't deny it. He wasn't encouraged to be smart or intelligent, but when pressed and given a challenge he somehow is suddenly smart. I mean, he developed Fuuton – Rasengan, Fuuton – Rasenshuriken and few more jutsu before he was 17. He is even better than Kakashi in jutsu creation…**

**Kakashi just needs to deal with the shit caused by the Academy and several things, it will be fun and it will take a lot of time for him to get any real progress.**

**Sakura's background, I wanted something interesting and new and this gives me a chance to have Anko explain several more grim and dark things about the world. **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N – Another chapter written and I'm quite proud of it. Ripples start to get out of control and a certain snake might get a bit skewered in the forest...**

**o-0-o**

Kakashi watched his blonde student wobble on the surface of the water and allowed himself a smile. It was far from the desired result, but far better than the lack of skill some shinobi displayed. It also showed that perhaps for once he wasn't overestimating capabilities of his student.

A loud yelp, followed by the sound of splashing water corrected Kakashi's estimations. That last feat was an effect of luck and Kami being merciful. Not skill. However it was still a progress and Kakashi hoped that in a week or so Naruto would figure it out.

"With that done," Kakashi mused as he rubbed his chin, his eye not focused on Icha Icha, but on his student for once. "Perhaps I should teach him Rasengan. He is possibly the only one of my students that can safely use it. And he is a son of Minato-sensei."

Kakashi looked at the soaked form of Naruto that emerged from the stream and eye-smiled at him. "Ten more minutes and you are free for today," he called out, only for his student to nod and once again try to stay on the surface.

"He is more stubborn than I thought," Kakashi said and looked at the sun that was slowly moving across the horizon. "But that's not the worst trait to have. And for once he didn't complain about it being boring... Strange."

The last ten minutes passed uneventfully and excluding few times when Naruto took a bath Kakashi read his book almost undisturbed. The moment his student was gone he pocketed the book and returned to the Memorial Stone to pay his respects. Only to find the Hokage there, seemingly waiting for him.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi said respectfully and the aged leader nodded at him.

"How is Naruto-kun, Kakashi?"

Kakashi looked at the Hokage with a raised eyebrow. He never expected this amount of interest from the Hokage. Unless suddenly Hiruzen remembered who was kid's father. "He has potential," Kakashi grounded out after few moments. "The potential and drive to maybe even surpass Minato."

"You realize that the more he becomes powerful the stronger the resemblance will be?"

"I know, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said and frowned. "I didn't have an opportunity to take a good look in the vault, but is there a chance that some Uzumaki clan clothing would be stored there?"

Kakashi could see some mirth in the eyes of the Hokage. Mirth and at the same time shrewness he rarely saw. "If he looks like Uzumaki the people will think that he is an Uzumaki," the Hokage said and chuckled. "I don't think that most of the spies are that idiotic to be fooled by this."

"I wouldn't be surprised, Hokage-sama. However, I want to give him something that would let him discard the kill me clothes he wears now. Not to mention, he needs more ties to his clan and the past that isn't tied to the village. Well, not to the village he knows, but the village we ought to have been to him."

Hiruzen hummed quietly, the gaze of his eyes focused on the memorial stone, but then he slowly nodded. "Very well, I will have several of the ANBU search the vault," he said after a moment. "When Mito-sama came to Konoha, she brought with herself several members of her clan so there should be something that could be useful."

Kakashi nodded and focused his gaze on the Stone. "Hokage-sama, do you know when Jiraiya-sama will be in Konoha?"

"Once he fulfills his mission. I cannot tell you more, Kakashi. Too much depends on it."

Kakashi conceded here as he knew that they weren't alone and him trying to press the point meant a meeting with the four ANBU hidden around the stone. Well, he only saw four, while there were usually twice as many around any Kage at all times.

"Leave us," the Hokage murmured and his shadows disappeared. "The ANBU is filled with spies and Ibiki is eliminating them. Tonight."

"I noticed that some were skittish earlier today," Kakashi said and mused. "It reminded me of a prey discovered in its hiding spot by a very hungry predator."

The Hokage chuckled at this, making Kakashi arch an eyebrow. "Nothing, Kakashi-kun. You're dismissed."

o-0-o

Anko nimbly landed in front of Sakura's home and then looked at her cute student. Cute and innocent student that was so unaware of how dark and grim the world of shinobi could be. And still thought that the world was mostly black and white, and not full of the shades of gray and darkness it truly was.

Anko was more than painfully aware of it, but that was the boon of being an apprentice of Orochimaru. She still appreciated him for the things she learned from him, but he was not the holiest of men and his methods were ruthless and cold and that made her see the world as an ugly and dangerous place much sooner than most of her peers.

Possibly it was also a thing that made her be more acutely aware of the dangers that came with their job and what saved her from more than a single attempt on her life. Anko shook her head discreetly and cut that thought short. She didn't need to brood on how many people wanted her dead because of the contract she signed. At least thanks to being in the higher echelons of ANBU she could persecute them however she wished to, legal aspects be damned.

"Anko-sensei?" Sakura asked quietly and the girl's voice snapped the snake summoner out of her musings.

"Nothing, Sakura," Anko said and indicated the door. "You come first, pinky."

"My name is Sakura," Sakura huffed, glaring at her sensei. "Not pinky."

Anko smiled and nudged the girl, at the same time watching her behavior very carefully. She wondered how much she could glean from Sakura's behavior. The girl tensed and slowly moved to the door, as if Anko was a far bigger threat than her parents or as if she was scared of what her parents would think if they saw Anko.

Sakura nodded and opened the door before shouting. "Kaa-san! Tou-san!"

Anko stepped inside, not bothering herself with politeness and kindness. She was a shinobi and didn't need to bother with being nice or friendly. She could be more refined, but most of civilians didn't need it. They wanted her gone as fast as possible and with as little noise as possible, allowing them to return to their normal and average lives. Without shinobi issues thrown at them.

Sakura's parents came and Anko didn't bothered them with much attention. They were civilians that had almost no chakra, every being had the chakra, but only ninja had any worthwhile amounts. The amounts the civilians had, were close to none and more importantly they couldn't mold it. Making them almost nonexistent threat for any ninja that could kill them with a singer finger.

"Who are you?" Sakura's mother asked without any formalities. "And more importantly, what are you doing in my house?"

"I'm temporary sensei of Sakura," Anko said and smiled. "And since her permanent one didn't deign to show up and explain to you several important things that we usually explain to parents of new genin... Well, I'm here and you will listen to me."

"Or what?"

"Nothing," Anko said and allowed herself a wide smile. "You see, Hokage-sama, is a wise leader and thinks it's... appropriate. Yes, that's the word, for the jonin-sensei of the teams to make the civilian parents of genin aware of certain things that can happen in our field of work. You can kick me out and that's your right, but I suggest that you listen to me."

"Fine," Sakura's mother grounded out. She looked at her husband and after a nod from him smile more warmly. "We will listen."

Anko smiled at this. The gesture more genuine and honest than the previous wide smile that was akin to a snake smiling. "Very well, Haruno-san," Anko said and paused for a moment. Considering how much she should reveal. Knowledge was a precious bargaining chip and one that wasn't cheap. "I'm Mitarashi Anko, tokubetsu jonin of Konohagakure no Sato, where do I work or what do I do? That's classified and you don't need to know it."

"Why, Mitarashi-san?" Sakura's father asked as he indicated for her to go into what looked like a living room.

"I'll be blunt," Anko said and looked at Sakura. "That will be a useful lesson for you to." Then she looked at Sakura's parents. "In the last six months ten people tried to murder me. Tried as in I managed to caught them in the act or I was told about them. I wouldn't be surprised if twice as many attempts were dismantled by the counter-intelligence cells of our village and I didn't know about them." At this Sakura's eyes widened perhaps even more than that of her parents. "I'm an extreme case because of what I do and how hated by some very influential people I am. Usually a ninja avoids most of the assassins or never knows about them because they get caught before they have a chance to do anything."

"Very well," Sakura's father conceded. "I used to live in the capitol and I can say when one is lying to me. Yet you seem to be honest."

"I didn't omit many facts," Anko said with a smile and looked at Sakura. "Considering the Team Sakura was placed on, I think she might be a magnet for troubles." At those words Sakura stiffened, making Anko only chuckle. "I don't mean you, nor your teammates really. The Team Seven is kinda special."

"What do you mean, ninja-san?"

Anko smiled at this and looked at Sakura's parents. "Let's see. Two Hokage, the Sannin are the most famous ninja that were once a part of this team," Anko said and grinned. "Enough said that if you are placed on this team, the higher ups think that you are destined for greatness or are a worthy investment." Anko paused for a second and then smiled. "However, that's less of a reason why I am here."

"So what is it?" Sakura's mother asked after a moment.

"The future training of Sakura," Anko said and allowed herself a predatory smile. "I was asked by her nominal sensei to train her and since the life of shinobi is harsh and unforgiving I will push her as hard as my sensei did when I was his student." She considered her words for a second and then nodded. "Yes, that sums up what I plan to do. She has the potential and just needs a shove in the right direction."

"What do you mean, Anko-sensei?" Sakura asked, some fear in her voice.

"That you need as much training as you can manage," Anko said flatly. "For reasons way above even my pay grade, the higher ups want you compete in the next chunin exam. I think that you can pass, you just need enough training so that you know what you need to know."

"Do you think that our daughter is ready for the exams?" Sakura's parents asked as one, making Anko chuckle a bit.

"I think she will be when they will come around in six months," Anko said and grinned. "I will be damned if she isn't ready by then. I can make her ready and will make her ready." What it involved was not for their ears so Anko didn't bother mentioning anything about it. "She needs hard work, determination and diligence, but if she has all of that, she will be a chunin after the exams."

"Thank you, Mitarashi-san," Sakura's mother said. "We never expected someone to care so much about the education and training of our only child."

"I only do my duty," Anko said before getting up and slipping out of the house. Only to be met by an ANBU. "What?" she asked with a hiss.

"Ibiki-taichou wants you to interrogate someone," the ANBU said and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Making Anko want to curse the coward, not that she blamed him. Her rage wasn't homicidal, that was the specialty of Hatake. Hers was more painful and drawn out.

At least a prospect of having fun brightened her mood and made her a bit giddy even. If Ibiki wanted her to make whoever it was talk, they would be stubborn as hell and had an interesting amount of resistance to pain.

o-0-o

Ibiki looked at the drawn up plans of the chunin exam and winced. Because of the current politician machinations that were above his pay grade he needed to change the bloody thing. He sighed and glared at Shikaku who looked as bored as ever. That trait of Nara, to look bored and sleepy when a thunderstorm was setting alight their house was pissing off.

"Why did you suddenly pay interest to the exams, Shikaku?" Ibiki asked without any pleasantries or false kindness. "You normally don't pay any attention whatsoever."

"Because of reasons that are too troublesome to tell," Shikaku said and grimaced. "They include the ANBU you caught and the agents Inoichi is having a chat with."

"And that warrants that you not take your usual nap and instead descend into the pits of the T&I to plan the next chunin exam?" Ibiki snorted. "I didn't know you as a kind and outgoing being."

Shikaku rolled his eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. "It is not everyday that every foreign village plots against you," he said and looked at Ibiki as shadows around them became awake. "Cut the crap, Ibiki. I have an appointment with the Hokage in the next four hours and want to tell him something more than we're still finding where our asses are."

"It's not every village," Ibiki corrected him. "Kiri is sensing us for an alliance, Kumo is Kumo and Iwa sits on its ass. Far away and out of the way of any future conflict we might have with our neighbors."

"Which leaves Suna, Ame, Taki, Kusa and Oto," Shikaku said, counting the villages with his fingers. "Five villages, against one. Those aren't great odds. They're still not terrible, but not great, either."

"Third war was worse," Ibiki said. "We had seven villages to deal with."

"Five of which were demolished when they killed Uzu," Shikaku said with a wince.

"So what do you plan to do?" Ibiki asked with an impish smile that could fool many, yet Shikaku was not one of them. "You are a Nara, a freaking genius that has a plan and a scheme when he needs it."

"Do a stupid thing," Shikaku said and grinned. "Invite Iwa, Kumo and Kiri to the exams. Have them send as many teams as we can bribe them to send. The more ninja from other villages are at home, the less likely they are to do something stupid out of the fear of doing something that can kill other foreign shinobi."

"We planned what?" Ibiki murmured as he reached for one scroll. "Fifty teams give or take five."

"Most of which would be ours," Shikaku said and pursed his lips, making the scars covering his head even more pronounced. "I was thinking invite twenty teams from each of the other major villages. Ten from each of the minor ones and perhaps sixty teams from our forces."

"Sixty teams? We don't have that many of the elite teams in rotation for that. We would need to send some of our cannon fodder into the exam and we do not send them in because of what they are."

"And they're the currency we need to pay to dismantle most of the political mess we're faced," Shikaku said and snorted. "If someone is planning something big, they will carry it out in the last phase, but they might do something stupid sooner."

"And clan heirs will all be taking part in it," Ibiki said and grimaced. "I don't want to be the paranoid one, more than usually. But if I wanted to cause problems, it would be during the second stage when we have the heirs without any ANBU handy to keep assassins away... Especially if we invite Kumo."

"Hyuuga Incident."

"And their general hunger for bloodlines. It wouldn't be last them to seduce say our last Uchiha and make him run away with them. Stranger things happened in the past."

Shikaku rubbed his chin and looked at the map of the Forest of Death. The usual venue of the second stage. "Do we have something else that's maybe even more deadly or can be made deadly?"

"Probably one of the ANBU playgrounds," Ibiki said and shrugged. "Some of them are mazes of canyons full of traps, poisonous and venomous animals and plants and we could rig them with dozens more of traps."

"That is an idea," Shikaku said and frowned. "I want something which we can contain and watch easily if need be. The Forest of Death is hard to check for troubles if we need to and we need to rely on cameras for too much of the coverage."

"I could probably find a drug to spray there to make the participants very talkative and angry," Ibiki said and Shikaku looked at him. "The T&I has many tools we don't advertise to the outside world. Sometimes an angry person has a very loose tongue and if we are right about it, we will have a great number of moles to catch."

"The Daimyo would need to be consulted," Shikaku said with a frown. "One thing is to have a slaughter at the exams. That's a norm accepted by all. Having us knowingly poison the genin so that they spill the secrets of their villages is a bit too dicey. Even if it can work."

Ibiki frowned and nodded. "I suppose I could be more secretive about it," he said and smiled. "There are ways to poison ones we think are interesting. Like one eternal genin that has been recently seen close to the Archives."

Shikaku's eyes widened at this, he didn't dare to say the next words as even if the headquarters of the T&I was proof against most forms of spying and nobody should know that he had a meeting here... Now, he was starting to get a bit paranoid.

"So far we have nothing on him," Ibiki said and growled. The noise putting Shikaku on edge, seeing the torture master, err, interrogator, so on edge was rare. He was always composed, loud and unfiltered at times, but calm. "And most of the ANBU that is clear is doing more important things."

"Great," Shikaku said and snorted. "Tell me that no more skeletons fell out of Danzo's closet."

"As far as I know he only talked with the advisors about Hiruzen eliminating his spies. And they said that they would talk with our esteemed Hokage. Not that I predict them much in terms of a success. More like another humiliation."

Ibiki nodded and then turned his attention back to the plans of the exam. "I will have everything done by the end of the week," he said and then smiled. "And probably even the most experienced genin will run away from the exam once they see the hell I can come up with. You know, our internal jonin exam could be scheduled at the same time and at the same place."

Shikaku paled at this and gave Ibiki the best expression of annoyance a Nara could muster that wasn't in any way influenced by boredom. "You want to cause an international incident?"

o-0-o

Hiruzen sighed and contemplated slapping his advisors across the room. He was very curious what dirty secrets made them come to his office and demand that he stops the investigation done by Ibiki.

"No," he said and seeing their looks of shock allowed himself a smile. "Ibiki has my full trust and I see no reason to tell him to stop. In fact, his investigation already found several holes in our security protocols." At this the advisors gaped like fish and Hiruzen only mentally chuckled. "Koharu, Homura, tell me, what did Danzo do to make you come to my office and demand that I stop that investigation?"

"We're just worried for the safety of Konoha," Homura said and Hiruzen arched an eyebrow in question. "A number of ANBU has been arrested and quite a few went missing-"

"Because of security reasons," Hiruzen finished for his advisor. "I trust you, I really do. But somehow Danzo learns of everything that happens when you two are around." He paused and looked at them. "Do you serve the Hokage or our former teammate?"

They looked between each other and then at him. Unsure what to do or how to even respond to that very obvious accusation of treachery.

"Leave this office," he said and closed his eyes for a second. "Come in two days with an answer that will satisfy me. I am willing to give you a second chance, but the moment you stab me in the back... Ibiki is waiting and he mentioned that he would love to play his mind games with you."

Before he finished that sentence the advisors were gone. The only sign of their presence a disturbance in the air from a very quick and rapid _shunshin_. Good, they didn't forget that they are ninja, Hokage mused and looked at the village. It seemed that there was more to Danzo than he ever estimated.

If he panicked so soon and made Koharu and Homura try to step in and put a stop to the investigation there really needed to be more to it. Hiruzen was aware that Danzo was working in the shadows, but he expected his former teammate to be maybe more skilled and less obvious than that. He sighed and shook his head before returning back to the paperwork.

o-0-o

Sasuke flashed through the handseals and didn't even call out the name of jutsu before expelling another ball of fire. The training with Yamato-sensei was far less forgiving than Kakashi-sensei ever was and he was even more demanding than the silver-haired jonin.

"Good enough," Yamato called out and Sasuke wanted to spit onto the jonin for that comment. That guy didn't know when enough was enough and when the exercise was a torture and not an exercise. "You improved, Sasuke."

"I needed," Sasuke shot back. "You're trying to kill me every single day and night I train with you."

Yamato shrugged and tossed a bokken, a wooden training sword used for kenjutsu training. "You want to defeat Itachi, kenjutsu is a thing you need to master," Yamato simply stated and reached for another.

Sasuke groaned, his pained muscles calling for rest and a period to regenerate, but then he pushed past their instincts and moved. Each second making him feel his whole body as if it was on fire.

He blocked the first strike. The clash of wood on wood sending tremors down his whole arm as the world exploded into stars. For the second he didn't have the energy to muster to lift his sword and stop the wood from smashing into his side and cracking a rib.

He let out a feeble sigh and dropped onto the ground. A pained expression on his face before the darkness came and claimed him.

o-0-o

Naruto carefully balanced on the water, the chakra flowing from his feet in random and unpredictable bursts. It wasn't even conscious decision at this point. Just one done on its own by the body as it kept him on the surface and prevented from taking a dive and finding himself all wet.

He let out a shout of joy and jumped. Barely managing to stay on the surface as he landed. "Yatta! I did it!"

"Good job, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei said and eye-smiled. "Do you want to learn a jutsu developed by your father?"

At this Naruto immediately became serious and looked at his sensei. "What jutsu?" Naruto asked, his eyes narrowed and none of the usual joy visible in them.

Kakashi eye-smiled and then extended his hand. A ball of pure chakra growing rapidly above his palm. "_Rasengan_," he said and paused for a second. "Sensei wanted to add elemental manipulation to it, but never had a chance before dying. _Chidori _and _Raikiri _that I developed were my attempts at finishing the jutsu. In this form it is still potent enough." Kakashi rammed his hand into a training post nearby and splinters flew in every single direction. "What it did to this post is a mercy compared to what it can do to human flesh."

Naruto gulped and nodded. In front of his mind flashing a scene of a human ramming that swirling ball of destruction into an exposed side of a human target.

"Yes," Kakashi nodded grimly. "That's why you won't ever use it against a fellow Konoha shinobi. Never. This is not a weapon you can use on a fellow ninja, even in a spar."

Naruto nodded glumly and Kakashi ruffled his hair before tossing him a bag of balloons. And at the confused look on his student's face he only laughed.

"That's the first step of learning the jutsu," Kakashi explained patiently. "As you saw, there are no handseals. Just chakra and shape of a sphere. You fill the balloons with water and try to make the water inside so chaotic that it pops the rubber. However, that is something you will do later on."

"Why?"

Kakashi smirked under his mask and Naruto wanted to punch him in the gutt and wipe that smirk off his face. "History lesson time," Kakashi said cheerfully. "You know that the _Kage Bunshin _makes a solid copy of yourself, right?" Naruto nodded energetically. "Now tell me, what can be so special about it that it is used as a scouting tool? Assuming that one using them has the necessary chakra."

Naruto frowned as he tried to remember that time when he had the Forbidden Scroll in his hands. There was something strangely familiar ringing inside of his mind and then his eyes widened. "The memories of the clone pass onto the original?"

"Yes, but they come with a drawback. The more clones you use, the bigger the drawback and I wouldn't suggest using more than two or three at times. The memories rushing into your mind take a time to be understood and too many at once can be overwhelming. You are an Uzumaki and that means that killing you is troublesome, but even you have some limits and you didn't mature enough to reap the full benefits."

"So if I use too many clones at once I'll suffer from a massive headache afterwards?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"Or just knock yourself out," Kakashi said with a sigh. "It just depends on you and how strongly you react. Some people get knocked out. Some just have a migraine kind of a headache for few hours."

Naruto nodded and then grinned. "This still means I can use three or so clones to learn _Rasengan_, while you teach me something else?"

Kakashi was speechless and his jaw almost dropped in shock. Who would think that this kid could get so smart so quickly if he was just nurtured and prodded in the right direction. "I will teach you something else," he said after a moment. "Well, more of make you trigger something as Kekkei Genkai vary by clan and I don't know how to make your pop out."

"Huh?"

"Even if I saw your mother use the bloody chains, I don't have an idea how did she activated them," Kakashi explained with a sigh. "I know how they're supposed to look. I know their purpose, but I don't know how they're triggered. I think it is related to how well you shape and control your chakra. But that is just a theory and since we don't have an Uzumaki handy, this is the best we have now."

Naruto nodded and made three clones that he sent away to do that utterly boring and frustrating thing with the balloons. Only to discover that the training with Kakashi wasn't much more entertaining as it mostly involved meditation and shaping his chakra into something that resembled a chain. It was grueling, cruel and unpleasant and far more boring than Naruto anticipated.

"Don't be so glum," Kakashi said with an eye-smile. "We still have five months and three weeks before the training ends. You don't need to manifest or even master your Kekkei Genkai in that time."

Naruto let out a frustrated grunt and shoved his hand forward. It was a move driven by anger and a strange instinct that told him it was the right thing to do. A beam of blue and gold chakra shot out, barely missed Kakashi-sensei and stopped inside of a tree, behind him. "Is that it?" Naruto asked with a goofy smile.

"Y-yes," Kakashi stammered as he eyed a chain that could have very easily pierced him. "That's what I wanted to see. Your parents would have been proud of you, Naruto."

Naruto beamed with pride and yanked his hand back. The chain ripped itself out of the tree in a shower of splinters and returned into his hand. Each of the links inscribed with strange glyphs and symbols and the tip shaped like a tip of a kunai, albeit with three prongs.

"Try to do it once again," Kakashi said and eye-smiled. "But don't skewer me, Konoha Shinobi Insurance policy doesn't cover getting skewered by massive chakra constructs."

"Does any village actually have chakra construct Kekkei Genkai accidents insurance?" Naruto asked, trying his best to stifle the laughter.

"Not anymore," Kakashi said and paused. "Kiri and Iwa have. Apparently they still have fresh memory of being skewered."

Naruto laughed at the poor joke and focused on the same sensation he felt when the chain erupted out of his hand. He pointed his hand at a rock away from Kakashi and willed for the chain to shoot out. It did it and smashed into the rock, breaking it into hundreds of dangerously sharp shards.

And after that Naruto's knees gave up under him and he smashed onto the ground. His body exhausted by the awakening of his Kekkei Genkai and the strain it put on the chakra coils. In a couple of years he would be able to manipulate several chains at once, but now all he could muster was a single one for several brief moments before passing out from the exhaustion and the strain put on his body.

**o-0-o**

**A/N – Yep, Naruto finally unlocked those nasty chains and the tip says a lot about his father. Not that he needs more hints to put the pieces together and look at a certain monument that he sees everyday.**

**As for Rasengan, Kakashi sucks in Wind jutsu and he needs shape manipulation for something he has in mind, so...**

**Yes, chunin exam will be bloody, maybe even more than Ibiki anticipates them to be... **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N – Another chapter and might be the last one in a while, new semester starts so my amount of time to spend on writing will decrease, a lot and I have my duties in an organization I belong to and internship coming soon. So I will be a bit busy.**

**o-0-o**

The Hokage entered the room in the hospital and looked at Kakashi. "What did he do?" he asked in exasperation eyeing the passed out form of Naruto.

"His Kekkei Genkai," Kakashi said and paused for few moments. "I didn't want to take any risks. I know well enough that this could have caused some traumas I didn't see or notice."

The Hokage nodded and then noticed the two ANBU present in the room. "Taking no chances with his security?"

"His chakra coils are burned. He needs a day or so of rest and we both know that someone might try to snach him." Kakashi grimaced at the idea, all of his pleasant demeanor gone. "I don't think that anybody is insane enough, but our world is full of wannabe idiots that would love to hurt us. And if the word let's out that we have a half-blood Uzumaki that can use their Kongo Fusa…"

"He will make it into bingo books of every worthwhile village," the Hokage said and wanted to spat onto the ground. "A potential to tame any bijuu is too great to ignore and that's just scratching the surface of what he can do with them."

"Can we keep it off the official documents?" Kakashi asked and the Hokage narrowed his eyes. "The more surprises he has, the less likely he is to be targeted soon. Perhaps even induction into ANBU would be advisable after the exams to protect his identity from our enemies."

"He won't be inducted into ANBU," the Hokage hissed and Kakashi jumped away at the tone of the voice. "Not now and not soon. Kakashi, I don't want another Itachi and he needs to mature before I am even willing to consider him as a candidate. However, I won't make you report his Kekkei Genkai. Until after the exams it stays off the paperwork."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said with a slight tilt of his head. "I will instruct him to keep the knowledge a secret and to share it only with his teammates. I think that after our mission to Nami they can be trusted to keep their mouths shut about things."

"Do you think he will keep his mouth shut?" Hokage asked, indicating the sleeping form of the resident troublemaker. "I don't recall him being a subtle one."

"Until I started to train him, no… Now… Now the revelations of whom his ancestors are woke him up," Kakashi said and eye-smiled. "Besides, much of his behavior was an act."

"Was it?"

"Considering his upbringing and the reaction of the village," Kakashi said and the Hokage winced at this. He really didn't need to be reminded about his own failures in keeping the village in check. He was the Hokage, damn it. "Yes, much of it was to get the attention and get noticed. However since I focused only on him in the training and actually has the acceptance and no mutters of the demon behind his back he matured."

"That is quite fortunate," the Hokage said and allowed himself a smile. "It would have been a shame if the only son of Minato was a fool and not a shinobi he ought to be."

"He is an Uzumaki through and through. Stubborn, energetic, brash, but with the intelligence to temper it," Kakashi said and paused, looking for words. "He is still loud, but knows when to temper his more foolish urges and ideas."

"Good, the chunin exam will be a bloody affair. Far bloodier than even yours was during the war."

"And you want them to take part in the wargames, Hokage-sama?!" Kakashi asked, swallowing visibly. "They might not survive the exam, especially if you say it will be worse than mine."

"We don't have a choice, Kakashi," the Hokage said and looked at the ANBU. "Guard the door and make sure nobody overhears us." The two masked shinobi nodded and slipped out of the room. "We have villages plot against us and we invited everybody to send as many teams as they can."

"Iwa and Kumo, too?"

"Aye, Shikaku thinks that having their genin here will cool those hotter heads in Suna," the Hokage said and paused for a second. "He is right on the account of it being a deterrent. Yugito Nii and Kurostsuchi are the names you should recognize."

Kakashi paused for a second, but then nodded. "They have genin teams?"

The Hokage grimly smiled and looked at the sleeping form of Naruto. "He will need to go against their students in the second stage. You better make them ready as neither of the two will go easy on him. And I fear that Nii might know whom he is, making it even worse for him."

"Or better, Kumo is the only place that respects them," Kakashi said and looked at the Hokage. "I will prepare him and if the time is sufficient, I will teach him how to deal with the more famous Kekkei Genkai."

"I hope that you won't fail me, Kakashi," the Hokage said and left the room. The news were better than he hoped for and it seemed that it prevented some of the problems he expected in the near future. An unstable and unpredictable jinchuuriki was the biggest issue any village could have, one that was rash and prone to rushing into action without much thinking wasn't much better. On the other hand one that was a trained shinobi that had some modicum of calm and intelligence was an extremely powerful asset that could stop an entire offensive with their sheer presence. Or make an impenetrable defense line collapse and shatter in matter of minutes.

It also meant that for once Konoha had a chance for hopefully a peaceful and calm decade without any wars close to its borders. That Nami mess, one caused by Kakashi and his team was a good thing as now Konoha and Hi no Kuni could tap into the wealth of that island and more importantly have de facto control over it. But on the other hand, Kiri that was recovering from the civil war with Yagura finally killed, and Kumo always wanting more influence, weren't happy that this piece of land was snatched right from before their noses.

While none of the major villages wanted to be the one to start another round of wars and Hiruzen was more than aware that the lengthy period of calm was a strange thing. Not a norm as the shinobi villages weren't at each others throats for over twenty years. An extremely weird thing considering that in past forty years there were three major wars and another one should have erupted few years ago. Yet it didn't and he wanted to extend this period for as long as possible.

Konoha wasn't ready for another war and while the shinobi forces were slowly recovering from the Kyuubi incident, the economical base was still shaky and the Uchiha clan was gone. When during previous wars it was them that took upon themselves the brunt of fighting and commanding. Now there were none that could do it and it would be decades before any significant number would be able to take to the field.

"We need a decade or two of peace," Hiruzen muttered as he left the hospital and looked at the sky. "Can we have that or will we have a war when we least expect it?"

He shook his head and made his way to the office. Taking the time to exchange few words with the villagers he passed and be a kind grandfather to the children of the village. Children that were the future and the responsibility of the village. Without them the future and the survival weren't a certain thing and the village would be doomed.

Perhaps he needed to send out trackers and ANBU into the world to find the remnants of the Uzumaki and those few families of the Senju and the Uchiha that never made it to the village with Hashirama and Madara. From what he knew a fair share was still wandering the world, still having the famous mastery of jutsu and in case of the Uchiha their dojutsu.

"Is it worth risking the ANBU for the chance of finding a couple of families?" he asked the portraits of the former Kage. And then he knew the answer. They were the part of the clans that founded the village and thus were worth any effort taken to find them and bring back to the village. However first the ANBU was needed for all of the operations done by Ibiki that made all of the foreign ambassadors in Konoha protest in the strongest of words about recent levels of surveillance and mistrust.

"You didn't need to spy so openly," Hiruzen said and snorted as he reached for the first of many reports piled on his desks that were also deemed important enough to be brought to his attention.

o-0-o

Anko dodged Sakura's punch and moved out of the way of the another before stopping the third one. The girl was getting better and started to be more of a kunoichi that she was of a fangirl and a bookworm, not that the last one was a bad thing to be in their field.

It was beneficial, but only if balanced by something more than the sheer knowledge and intelligence. Anko laughed as she enjoyed herself and sparred with Sakura, it was slow and sloppy by her normal standards, but compared to what the girl showed before it was a noticeable progress.

"You are better," Anko said as they moved away from each other. "Not that in ideal circumstances you will need taijutsu for more than save your ass from troubles."

"What do you mean, Anko-sensei?" Sakura asked with a frown. "Isn't it one of the three basic ninja arts."

"Yes, yes, it is," Anko said and hopped onto a tree stump behind her. "But for a great many of ninja it is the least useful one. No matter what you do, your skills aren't for the front line and taking on taijutsu monsters like Gai or ninjutsu specialists like Kakashi. Yours are to support them and keep enemy of their backs. Throw genjutsu, poison, catch enemy in traps and provide cover or heal. That's what you are possibly better at."

"So why do you still push me so hard?"

"Because of the chunin exams," Anko said and paused for few seconds, considering her words. "I cannot really predict against whom you will need to fight. And many of them might force you to engage in taijutsu duel. One that you need to know how to win, fast and dirty and efficiently. The longer the duel, the more energy you waste and the higher the chance of a lucky hit."

"And a higher chance that I lose," Sakura added, making Anko nod. The girl then grimaced in disgust looking at her sensei. "But fighting dirty and using every known weakness against the enemy isn't very fair."

"And the shinobi world is one where nobility and chivalry can get you killed," Anko said bluntly. "We deal with the biggest scum out there and aren't much better. Just much deadlier and more skilled due to the training we have. Slitting throats, bribing, torture, interrogation, kidnapping, that's all we do and much more." Then Anko smiled friendly and looked at Sakura. "Fighting dirty and hitting pressure points or known weaknesses is the least scary part of what we do and one that won't leave you with any traumas and nightmares."

Seeing Sakura waver Anko jumped down and started another bout of taijutsu spar, forcing the girl to focus on defending herself from the strikes aimed at all of the vulnerable points Anko could easily reach. Normally she was against using it when battling friends, but it was a good lesson and a very pointed one, too and an excellent motivation to train harder and get better.

o-0-o

Sasuke blocked the strike that would have snapped his neck otherwise and leaped away from the follow-up. Tossing a handful of shuriken at Yamato to give himself room to breath and a break in fighting, he looked at the older jonin and smiled. Finally he felt like he was being taught something useful and that the jonin teaching him knew stuff.

"You are better," Yamato said with a small smile as he swatted aside the shuriken. "And can think more strategically."

Sasuke allowed himself a smile and hurled himself at Yamato. Their swords crashed against each other and Sasuke tried to force Yamato to move backwards. The jonin conceded some space and then Sasuke was forced to leap backwards, to avoid a strike at his groin.

"That's low," he muttered looking at Yamato.

"Be happy that I let you dodge," Yamato said and Sasuke tensed. "Kakashi would show you no mercy if he was serious. Even if it is brutal, it is efficient and you know that most of the world won't give you a chance to dodge."

Sasuke nodded and wiped sweat of his face. His breathing was getting ragged and no amount of training and determination could keep it even when faced with Yamato. The jonin had an aura of lethality and danger around himself, one that scared Sasuke. No, it wasn't that he was scared, more of an awareness that a single misstep, single mistake could end with his death.

"That will be enough for now, Sasuke," Yamato said and beckoned for Sasuke to follow him. "What do you know about Will of Fire?"

"It is a philosophy of the Senju clan."

"Nothing more?" Yamato asked and frowned. "I didn't attend much Academy, but I thought they taught you more."

Sasuke closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, forcing his mind to think. "It is also a philosophy of the village and each Hokage needs to embody it."

"And every shinobi should strive to do the same," Yamato said and looked at Sasuke. "You sure you don't remember anything about it?" Sasuke shook his head in denial. "It is a philosophy that makes us focus so much on teamwork and cooperation. We focus so much on those exercises that you think that are stupid, like building teamwork or cohesion, because that's the way the village was founded and then grew." Yamato paused and considered his words. "Because of the talents I posses I studied the teachings of the Shodaime-sama and one of the more interesting things that you probably should know is that he and Madara were the best friends."

Sasuke jerked and looked at Yamato. "What?"

Yamato chuckled at this, unsettling the Uchiha even more. "Yes," he said and smiled. "Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara were friends. I thought that you were taught this at the Academy or in your clan."

"No, I was not."

"Well, today is a time for a lesson than," Yamato said with a smile. "They managed to stop the bloodshed between their clans and settle down in one place. Konoha was the village they founded and protected. The teamwork we all so love is from the teachings of Hashirama and his clan. Many villages don't send more than a single jonin on a mission. We always send a squad of at least two and in many cases three or four."

"The genin teams that survive aren't separated, are they?" Sasuke asked as they stopped in front of the memorial stone.

"If the teamwork and cohesion is good and there are no requests from them or one joins the ANBU then no, they stay that way for as long as feesible," Yamato said and looked at the stone. "Kakashi's team was an example of that. Until the death of his two teammates they mostly worked together. Even if two were genins and he was a jonin."

"What did happen to them?"

"Them?" Yamato asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Kakashi-sensei's team."

"Well, the sensei of it, Namikaze Minato, died on the night when Kyuubi broke free," Yamato said. "Sealing it in a newborn babe, his own son. Kakashi served in ANBU for a long time. And the two other are Nohara Rin, a kunoichi that was turned into a jinchuuriki by Kiri with a faulty seal. So that the Sanbi would break free inside of Konoha. Kakashi killed her to prevent that and as for the last one. Uchiha Obito, the Sharingan Kakashi has. Where do you think it comes?"

"From some random Uchiha he saved?"

"No," Yamato said and shook his head slowly. "During the Third War. Their team was carrying out a mission and they were ambushed by Iwa forces they pushed away. Obito's body, half of it was crushed by a rock. He was dying and he demanded that Rin transplanted his Sharingan into Kakashi's empty eye socket."

Sasuke mulled over those words, now it made more sense. Much more sense and the scar under Kakashi's eye explained itself. However he paused and then his eyes widened as he realized something else. "Kyuubi was sealed in a newborn babe," he said quietly and Yamato nodded. "A babe that was a child of the Hokage." Yamato once again nodded. "You also said that Naruto is something more than he seems to be."

"That is all true," Yamato said and placed his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "And your line of thinking is correct. However I advise you not to mention it aloud. For the same reason why he doesn't have the name of his father."

"Because of the spies and assassins?"

"Among many other things," Yamato said and looked at the onyx black surface of the stone. "Murdering Kage's or their direct descendants is usually frowned upon, but Namikaze name is so hated in Iwa that even the Tsuchikage doesn't have the power to force all of his underlings to listen to him and don't order assassins to bring them the head of the spawn of Minato. And there is scum that doesn't care about the politics between the major villages and will do everything to send us to war with someone. Just out of spite."

"What about his mother?" Sasuke asked and paused, seeing Yamato smile.

"Think, you are a bright boy," Yamato said and pointedly looked at the stone. "He was given her name because while feared, her clan is officially extinct and the few survivors are far and wide. I won't give you a name because again, I don't want to point people in his direction and there are more reasons than that." He frowned and Sasuke shoot a worried look at his sensei. "Find in the Archives the list of the killed in the Kyuubi attack," Yamato finally said. "She won't be on the main list, but close enough that the rest is simple."

"Isn't that a document I don't have access to?" Sasuke asked. "Last time I checked it was for chunin and higher."

"You are a ninja, how you get there is not my problem. You wanted data that I cannot openly share. Find how to enter the Archives and get the document." Yamato looked at Sasuke with a malign look to his eyes. "I heard that now ANBU are placed around the Archives to scare off potential thieves."

o-0-o

Jiraiya slipped out of Kusa and let out a sigh of relief, the atmosphere in the village was tense and it was clear as a day that nobody wanted his presence inside. Even if the leadership was as kind and as polite as it ought to be to a student of the Sandaime Hokage and a Sage, there were no real feelings in their behavior. Just gestures, empty and hollow. Hoping to sooth his suspicions and keep his attention elsewhere.

"They're plotting against us," Jiraiya muttered and smiled as he remembered the letter from the sensei with the update about the chunin exam. "Need to tell Ibiki to make sure they cannot say no to the invitation and that they send as many teams as possible."

He could feel the gazes of the village ANBU on his back and lingering any longer was ill-advised. He could take on probably the whole forces of Kusa if he went Sage, but any combat would be bad and would shove Kusa deeper into the arms of whoever that was behind all of the plots aimed at Konoha.

"The question is, what would be so enticing they wouldn't be able to say no," Jiraiya frowned as he started to make his way towards the biggest town of this country. The chance to learn what was going on was much higher and the red light district was a priceless source of information. "Their shinobi are fairly skilled and without bending the rules can advance far."

He scratched his chin and glanced backwards. The ANBU weren't paying any more attention to him which was good. Or at least the more visible ones weren't, the rest he couldn't tell where they were, but should be far enough that he should have a fair warning before they appeared.

"They need to be bought so that they can be controlled in what they do," Jiraiya mused and ignored the jonin that passed him by. "Sensei should be able to come up with something and there is always Shikaku and sending a couple of ANBU squads to scare them is not a bad option. They're rattled as is by my presence, ANBU will make them even afraid of doing anything. Or make them so determined they will do it no matter the costs."

o-0-o

Naruto opened the door to his flat and his hand went to his kunai holster when he noticed someone in his flat.

"It's just me, Naruto-kun," the Hokage said and stepped into Naruto's view. "I know that Kakashi talked with you about your clan."

Naruto stiffened and looked at the Hokage suspiciously, he was one of few people that really cared about him. But at the same time, Kakashi told Naruto not to mention the topic of his clan and family.

"You don't need to hide that you know about the clan when talking with me," the Hokage said as he sat down in one of the old and worn out armchairs in Naruto's apartments, a cup of tea in his hands. "I know about this and Kakashi needed my permission to tell me."

"Yes, Jiji," Naruto said as he moved to the second armchair and looked at the Hokage. "I'm curious, why did you keep this knowledge hidden from me?"

"I had my reasons," the Hokage said and sighed. "Trying to protect you and wanting to bury my guilt. Killing family of a Kage, former or current can be a cause of war and many wanted to drag us into a war. You thinking name Uzumaki is some random name kept most eyes off you." At this Hokage smiled and pulled the hat off his head before placing it on the table. He smiled then at something he could only think of and looked at Naruto. "Did you ever wonder why the vests chunin and jonin wear and much of the standard attire of our forces has the same swirl as your clan?"

"No," Naruto said and shook his head. "I assumed it was just a decorative element."

"And the Academy once again didn't teach you what you should have known," the Hokage said and then the gaze of his eyes focused on Naruto's. "Or you skipped the classes when they explained that."

Naruto averted his eyes and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I skipped some history classes," he said, making the Hokage sigh in a manner that didn't suggest good things for Naruto.

"The swirl is a sign of your family," the Hokage said and Naruto nodded. "The swirl on the uniforms of our forces is a sign of the bond we shared and the many marriages between the Senju and Uzumaki clans. Your mother was one of the last Uzumaki that arrived here before the refugees after the fall of Uzushio. The island is still standing, but since the end of the last war we didn't send there anybody."

"Could I go there?" Naruto asked. "I would like to see the home of my ancestors."

The Hokage was silent for several long moments, but then he slowly nodded. "Yes, I think it could be arranged at the end of your training with Kakashi," he said and allowed a faint smile. "It would be also educational for your teammates, to see the place where so much of the history happened."

"Thank you, jiji!"

The Hokage laughed and pulled out a thick sealing scroll from his robes. "Open this scroll, Naruto-kun."

Naruto took the scroll from the Hokage, slapped it down onto the floor and opened. Inside, on the paper there were over a dozen of storage seals. Each of them of an intricate design, done by someone who mastered the art of sealing or was at least proficient in what they were doing.

"The scroll itself is an artifact from Uzushio," the Hokage said and Naruto's eyes flickered with warm flames. "It was done by your relative, Uzumaki Mito, wife of the Shodaime Hokage, and since then kept its content inside. You can unseal the content from the first three seals."

Naruto nodded and applied his chakra to the seals, making clouds of appear as their content popped into view. Several heavy wooden chests stood in the middle of the room, each of them emblazoned with the sigil of the clan they belonged to. That sigil was the spiral of Naruto's clan and as he placed his hand on it, locks in the first chest clicked and disengaged.

"All of this is for you, Naruto-kun," the Hokage said with a smile. "There are weapons, clothes and books you might find interesting and useful."

"Thank you, Jiji!" Naruto exclaimed as tears of joy ran down his cheeks.

o-0-o

Sakura frowned as she followed Anko to Konoha hospital. She couldn't understand what her scary sensei could be looking for inside of that building and at her questions Anko only smiled. Not bothering to answer them. They entered it and Sakura's frown deepened as her sensei seemed to ignore most of the doctors and nurses.

"I can't take you to my true home," Anko said with a sigh. "You don't have a high enough clearance to know that it exists. So we need to use the labs at the hospital."

"Labs?"

"Yes," the snake summoner said impatiently. "While Tsunade-sama developed new ways to heal our injured shinobi, she often needed to develop antidotes to various poisons used by other villages. My sensei, Orochimaru, her teammate, developed new toxins and poisons, often using the samples of the poisons she needed to counter."

"Wasn't he banished for something?"

"Orochimaru?" Anko asked as she showed her ID card to an ANBU standing in front of steel doors. "Yes, he was. But it was not for doing that. What's the reason for his banishment you might learn if I decide that you deserve to know it."

Sakura nodded and watched the ANBU open the door before letting them through it. Inside it was all stainless steel and a strong stench of chemicals assaulted Sakura's nose. "It looks more clean than I expected," she said, looking around and seeing nobody outside of them.

"We do most of the work elsewhere," Anko said. "You just don't have a clearance to know about it. So we will use this place for now." She allowed herself an impish smile that sent shivers down Sakura's spine. "How good is your biology and chemistry knowledge?"

"I had top marks from my Academy tests, Anko-sensei."

Anko hummed quietly as she rummaged through the cupboards. "It should suffice you for now," she said and then pulled out several thick and by the looks of them old books. "Read them and be done by the end of the next week. Human anatomy and physiology, poisonous plants of Hi no Kuni, venomous animals of Kaze no Kuni and notes on the more common poisons. Now however, let's see how much you know about poisons from the Academy."

"What do you mean, Anko-sensei?" Sakura asked as she saw Anko pull out several glass vials with things inside of them.

"Those ten contain poisons or venons you should be able to recognize after the Academy," Anko said as she brought them to one of the tables. "Assuming you have some kind of a brain that works and basic knowledge."

o-0-o

"How many teams do you think we will have, Shikaku?" the Hokage asked as he looked at the jonin commander.

"Kiri wants an alliance," the scarred Nara said. "We suggested in the last message to the new Mizukage that we expect from each of the major villages twenty teams. So I think that they will send at least thirty. They are licking their wounds and need to show to nobles that they still matter."

"And they have a new Kage, too," the Hokage mused. "One that wants to make an even stronger statement that they're strong. I think that she should be invited for the finals and that we rig the bracket a bit in their favor."

"I would add perhaps twenty percents of missions that come to us from Nami. They are fairly straightforward, but have high fees and what they need is reputation and money."

"I would suggest that when negotiating with her in person," Hiruzen said and let out a weary sigh. "The world is at each other's throats and they will think that it is a lie. Now, if I were to offer it to her when she is in Konoha she should believe it." He looked at the map of the world and then looked at Suna. "Did Kazekage respond to our messages?"

"He did," Shikaku said and winced. "He is displeased, but he will send forty teams."

"Forty teams?" Hiruzen frowned. "Suna was always short on manpower."

"I had the same thought, Hokage-sama," Shikaku said and then added more grimly. "Until I had a chance to talk with Inoichi. Our interrogations brought first fruits. It seems that Suna is plotting with someone against us and want to slip as many agents into the exam as they can."

"The ANBU will need to be dispatched to take care of them. We did something similar before the Third War, ANBU teams were inserted into the exams to eliminate several participants and protect Kushina."

"Which can weaken the defenses of the village," Shikaku pointed out. "A trade off."

"Aye, but I doubt that one would attack during the second stage. Too many foreign ninja in the way. I would attack during the second when we can't check everybody."

Shikaku nodded. "Kumo and Iwa seem normal. Twenty teams from each and they're sending Kurotsuchi and Yugito Nii, which suggests they might want to negotiate. Granddaughter of the Tsuchikage and niece of the Raikage and jinchuuriki of Nibi mean something."

"Or Onoki is playing another game of his," Hiruzen said and sighed. "He is older than I am and played the game for longer than I can remember."

"That too is an option," Shikaku agreed. "But I don't think he is the one that also plots with Kusa and Suna. Kusa and Ame and even Taki are sending fifteen teams each and seem keen on driving home the point that they hate us."

"That's a lot of teams," the Hokage said and grimaced. "The exam will be a huge one."

"Aye, hundred and ten from other major villages and forty-five more from the three minor ones," Shikaku said and then checked one scroll. "And three from Otogakure."

"Did Jiraiya confirmed it was the lair of Orochimaru?"

"He didn't, but all the evidence suggests it is it," Shikaku said and allowed himself a far more predatory smile than normally. "The patrols report an increase in traffic from our village and to Otogakure."

"Is he that sloppy? I expected more of him." The Hokage winced. "Or did he fall that low."

"I think that he wants to be seen. And dangle it in front of our eyes. I dispatched additional ANBU platoons to scout and they should be back in a couple of days."

"So a total of a hundred and fifty-five teams," the Hokage said. "How many of ours would you suggest sending into the exam?"

"Around seventy, some of which would be undercover ANBU. More and people will ask questions. Less and the questions also will be asked."

o-0-o

Sasuke kneeled at the edge of the roof on the other side of the street from the Archives building and watched. The lowering sun that cast less and less light onto the world and the growing shadows worked in his favor, but then. The guards that were hidden somewhere were of the kind that wouldn't reveal itself so easily. And he stood no chance against them in combat, nor killing them was an option. They were fellow Konoha shinobi and killing comrades was the worst thing a Konoha ninja could do. Ever.

His black eyes flickered to the red and black of the Sharingan and the silhouettes of the ANBU became visible.

"One," he murmured, his eyes focused on the closest ANBU. "Two." His eyes flickered to the next one. "Three." The final one that was in the middle.

"No," Sasuke whispered. "Standard team is four. Three and the leader. Where is he?"

His eyes widened as he realized that the final one was either inside. A fairly easy to overcome problem or was standing on some vantage point and waiting for the potential thief to deal with the ANBU on the building. Both were standard protection of the target tactics taught at the Academy and it was hard to say which one was more likely.

"Where are you?" Sasuke asked nobody in particular as he scanned the roofs of the nearby buildings and waiting for the darkness to settle. He reached to the pouch on his belt and checked the content. Shuriken, check. Smoke bombs, check. Explosive tags, check. Ninja wire, check.

o-0-o

"He is good," Yugao murmured as she watched Sasuke from a vantage point he so far missed. "How is it that he is a genin?"

"Social skills or rather lack of them," Tenzo murmured from his spot next to her. "And psych evaluation. Ninjitsu and taijutsu are excellent and some chunin would struggle against him. But the rest is bad."

"Do you think he will assume I'm inside?"

"I think he will do it," Tenzo said and indicated the three ANBU on the roof. "The fact that he took enough time to notice them is rare for him. He can be a bit hasty at times."

"Uzumaki brat for all his irritating habits was a good challenge," Yugao said and Tenzo could detect a smile under her mask. "This one looks like less of a challenge to stop."

Tenzo nodded and looked at the sky. "I think he will move soon. Did you tell your team to not kill him?"

"They will let him grab the scroll and then pounce onto him. And bruise quite a bit in the process."

"Good. Let him put up a good fight. He needs a different opponent than what he usually has and he needs that information." Yamato tensed when he noticed that Sasuke started to move. "Let's what you learned, Sasuke."

**o-0-o**

**A/N – Game of politics starts to get messy and some players might soon get eliminated as the Hokage doesn't enjoy the amount of room he is left with. Lack of Danzo in the chapter is simply because Danzo found himself a nice, thick rock and hid below in, hoping that people leave him alone.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N – Another chapter and some interesting developments happen. I don't have a freaking idea how many more chapters I will have before I finally get to the chunin exams and the hell that comes with them.**

**o-0-o**

Sasuke dropped onto the ground and raced across the street. He noticed the movement of the ANBU and immediately ducked. He hurled a smoke bomb in their direction and smashed his body against the wall of the building.

He paused to catch his breath and calm himself before opening the door and slipping inside. From what he knew the building was empty at this time of the day, yet he was proven wrong when he almost smashed into a fellow genin.

Not giving him any chance Sasuke kicked him in the groin and the second the boy gasped in pain and almost bent in half, the blunt end of Sasuke's kunai smashed into the boy's head, knocking him out. Outside of the bruised pride and pain, he should be fine, Sasuke considered his options for a second, but then he shrugged and moved deeper. He had an idea where his goal was, but he also was more than aware that the ANBU wouldn't be fooled by his cheap trick with the smoke bomb.

He raced down the short corridor ahead of him and kicked open the door at the end before stopping for a second to find the direction. He smiled when he noticed the shelf that should have the scroll he was after. He approached it and seeing no traps he reached for the scrolls. He didn't have time to look through them and he could already hear the ANBU moving towards him.

He slipped them into one of his holsters and raced out of the room. His eyes widening as the motion of everything became slower thanks to his Sharingan and it saved him from getting beheaded by an ANBU coming towards him.

He ducked under the swing of the ninjato and raced past the ANBU. Only to find two more waiting for him and looking as if they were ready to murder him.

"Surrender, Uchiha-san," one of them said. "You stand no chance against us."

Sasuke tsked and reaching into his pouch for a smoke bomb. He dropped it and the moment the corridor was filled with thick smoke he moved. His Sharingan allowed him to see through it and he barely passed the two ANBU. Only for the last one to drop onto him. Its bulk smashed onto his back and forced Sasuke to the ground.

"Surrender," a feminine voice spoke from behind him, second later he heard something click and then he felt a razor sharp blade touch his throat. "You are the last of your clan, but Konoha has no need for traitors and scum that tries to steal things from it."

He swallowed and wanted to throw the ANBU of his back, but then the blade was pressed more forcefully against his throat and he felt his blood run. He swallowed and then relented, ceasing his attempts to struggle against the ANBU.

"Much better," the ANBU said as she cuffed him. She then hauled him up. "Walk slowly," she said as she kept her hand on his shoulder. "You do something unexpected, I will kill you."

Sasuke swallowed as he could feel the cool of a steel blade pressed against his back. The tip pressed just enough to remind him that it was there, yet not causing any wounds. Yet. He moved slowly, his moves even sluggish, just so that the scary ANBU wouldn't have a reason to kill or at the very least maim him.

They walked out of the building and once outside of it Sasuke noticed Yamato waiting for him. "I wondered how long would it take the ANBU to catch you," Yamato said and then looked at the ANBU behind Sasuke. "Neko, release him. You need to admit, he was good."

"He was," the ANBU behind said and Sasuke glanced at her. "Not as good as the Uzumaki brat. He could at least keep several squads running for days."

That phrase made Sasuke's ego hurt, maybe even more than the fact that he got caught by the ANBU. Well, caught and first beaten by that surprise attack.

"This one time nobody will know about the fact that you sneaked into the Archives," Yamato said sternly and Sasuke looked at him. "Next time you do something foolish and dangerous, information about this incident will make its way to the ANBU... The rest you can guess."

Sasuke swallowed, ignoring his pride and slowly nodded in understanding.

"Good, tomorrow we won't train so do the research on Katon and other natures of chakra and after that I might show you some jutsu that can be useful for you."

o-0-o

Naruto's eyes widened as he looked at the content of the chests he got from Jiji, they were so full of various clothes, sets of armor, weapons and scrolls on what he assumed was his clan jutsu and history that he had issues believing it was all real. He pulled out a kunai from a holster on his leg and gently stabbed himself in the hand.

Pain shot through his body as blood poured out of the wound yet the things remained there. It was no illusion, even if a good part of his mind was yelling at him that it was one. He shoved that aside and rummaged through the content of the chests. All of the clothes felt smooth and much nicer than his usual orange and blue jumper, one he mostly wore to get the attention and the scolding gaze of his sensei was getting through his love of it.

Some of them looked extremely extravagant with loud and flashy colors that attracted attention, not to mention being done from so light of a cloth that they almost seeped through Naruto's fingers. He put them away and instead focused on the shirts, hoodies and pants made out of muted and subdued colors.

They were all made out of a rougher and tougher fabric that was still nicer than his jumper, but he could tell that it was made for ninja and fighting. Not looking fancy. Much to his disappointment all of them were in various shades of blues and blacks and grays, excluding a couple of hoodies that had several wide dark red stripes on the front.

"_Kage Bunshin_," Naruto intoned doing one of the most useful hand seals and three clones popped into existence in the room. "You know what to do," he said and the clones nodded.

One of them started to clean his flat, throwing out thrash and organizing some of the mess he had inside, while the other two started to sort the content of the chest. As well as try to put it in a more organized fashion. A task that proved far harder than it seemed to and Naruto was only done with it as the moon was high in the sky and the night fell onto Konoha.

o-0-o

Ibiki tossed a kunai and smiled when it landed where he wanted it to land. He ignored the quivering form of the prisoner he was interrogating and looked at the ANBU that interrupted him. "What?"

"Hokage-sama is here," the ANBU said. "With Shikaku-sama."

Ibiki arched an eyebrow at this, but then nodded. "Have Inoichi take over his interrogation," he said and walked out of the room. "Once he is done with him. Start to look through the files of those with access to the reports I highlighted."

The ANBU nodded and disappeared, leaving Ibiki with his thoughts as he walked from the darker and officially not existing parts of the building. Most of the ninja population of Konoha was scared of him as it was, letting out the horrors locked deep underground would make them wonder if he was insane. Besides, they didn't need to exactly know how some of the intelligence data was extracted or how some spies were found. The only ones that really had an idea of its existence was the ANBU, most of the jonin and almost whole Yamanaka clan because of their clan jutsu being extensively utilized.

Ibiki cleaned the blood of his face and stepped into his office, only to find the Nara patriarch and the Hokage wait for him. With none of the usual ANBU around which was a bit suspicious, but then, even village leaders had a safe amount of distrust towards their most elite assassins and enforcers.

"What do you want?" Ibiki asked as he sat down behind his desk and looked at the transcripts from the most recent interrogations. "Making those working for Danzo talk is a challenge and I don't like disturbances."

"I'm the Hokage, Ibiki," the Hokage said, flexing his chakra and making Ibiki wonder if the aged Kage didn't start more serious training recently. "You have the autonomy because it's bringing benefits."

Ibiki bowed his head in apology and wondered for a moment why Shikaku also was here. He knew that it was Shikaku now that ran the chunin exams, but it was still strange to see the Hokage and his de facto second-in-command in one place.

"What can you tell us about those three genin," Shikaku said throwing a scroll onto the desk. "Rumors reached us that they will compete in the chunin exams."

"Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Kankurou and Sabaku no Temari?" Ibiki asked and sighed. "Unstable jinchuuriki of Ichibi and his siblings. Is Rasa insane enough to actually send us an unstable son of his that can be a threat to the whole village?" The looks exchanged by the Hokage and Shikaku made Ibiki frown. "He didn't mention that his son makes Sasuke look like the most well-behaved kid, did he?"

"He didn't," the Hokage said and frowned. "Usually we don't announce to each other whom we're sending so soon. Usually it is a week or two before, not five months in advance."

"He might be playing some kind of a game and hopes to make us freak out over the Ichibi," Shikaku said and Ibiki could tell that the Nara was onto something. "It is all too convenient. Spies that were in our village are eliminated one by one and suddenly we get news about three dangerous beings that will take part in the exams."

"Or he wants to scare us," Ibiki said and then paused for a second. "They are also his children, that's smelling to me like he is up to something. He wouldn't have sent such a notice, so much in advance, unless he wanted to impress us and someone else with his actions."

"That aside, you are the proctor of the first stage," the Hokage said and the smile on the face of Shikaku made Ibiki wonder what the jonin commander was up to. "However it is Shikaku who will prepare the test for the genin."

"I guess it will be the stage where I will need to eliminate all of the more obvious agents placed in the crowd?"

"Actually you will let them slip," Shikaku said and Ibiki was about to get up when shadows leaped from the Nara and trapped him. "We have too many villages that don't know their agendas. We will let them advance to the second stage and then they will get removed, permanently."

"Do you suggest the thing I have in mind?" Ibiki asked and Shikaku looked at him. "Have the ANBU in the exam and when the time is right knock them out and take for some quality time with me and Inoichi?"

"That is one of scenarios. We know that some will be after Byakugan and Sharingan and Kongo Fusa." Ibiki's eyes widened at the last one. "Yes, Naruto has it and it supposed to stay as a secret, but you know spies and secrets."

"It is a matter of time before they get their hands on the secret," Ibiki muttered darkly. "Not that now there are many spies left. Well, outside of those working for Iwa, Kumo and Kiri. I didn't touch those yet."

"And you won't touch them," the Hokage said, making Ibiki focus on the aged leader. "We don't want Tsuchikage and Raikage more suspicious than need be and as for Mizukage, she wants an alliance. You will remove the leaks that give data to them, but won't touch any of their main agents."

"It might make Kumo and Iwa wonder what we're up to."

"We don't think so," Shikaku said. "Attention of the Tsuchikage is focused on our 'ally' and his attempts to look more powerful. While the Raikage is concerned by the growing threat of Kiri and the new village, Otogakure."

"The village many of the agents work for... I don't think it is that new, it might look new, but the network backing it up is old. Really old." The Hokage and Shikaku exchanged looks and Ibiki continued. "If I didn't know better, I would say that it was founded by Danzo, but the warhawk cares too much about Konoha to do something like it. But his mode of operation, network organization, everything, they have it."

"That is a very interesting development," Shikaku said and Ibiki arched an eyebrow. "Everything else points at our dear friend, Orochimaru, but I didn't expect him to use the knowledge of the ROOT."

"The Snake Sannin," Ibiki frowned as he tried to remember the content of his stash of blackmail material. One he gathered just in case he needed to make a hasty retreat from the village. He was a loyal shinobi, but often T&I was affected by the politics and when everybody knew he had dirt on the key players he could do his job undisturbed. After all, nobody needed to know that Hyuuga Hiashi had a lover or that he ran some shady things. "I would need to check what my predecessor had on him, but there could have been ties between him and Danzo."

"Do it," the Hokage said and then glanced at Shikaku. "Make sure that someone is watching all of the paths used by the ROOT."

"And make sure that whoever they catch is brought to me in one piece and alive," Ibiki said and paused. "Actually, scratch that bit about alive. With ROOT it doesn't make much of a difference, their seals make getting data out of them a nightmare. Hokage-sama is there a chance that Jiraiya-sama comes home soon?"

"Not sooner than in two or three months. His talents are more useful elsewhere."

Ibiki nodded and got up from his desk. "If that's the case, Hokage-sama, Shikaku, pardon me, but I have a prisoner I need to make talk and he might actually have some useful information concerning our friends."

o-0-o

Sakura squinted her eyes as she looked at the description of the symptoms caused by the poison and tried to associate it with one of the dozen or two poisons she learned about. Most of them was a pale imitation of the most potent and dangerous poisons used in combat by the ANBU or medics, but they were a dangerous thing nonetheless.

While against some ninja it wouldn't work at all and most could make an antidote, civilians were less aware of them and thus were the main choice of the poisons when eliminating annoying lords. Which made recognizing them even more important.

"It's based on the heavy metals," Sakura finally said and bit her lip. "It reminds me of the poison used by Akasuna no Sasori."

"Very good," Anko said with a smile. "It is a poison that gave us a lot of headaches when we last clashed with Suna. It's one used by almost all of the puppet masters from the village. Sasori improved upon it and made it even more potent. Now, what are the disadvantages of it?"

"Can't be used for the poisonous mist," Sakura said and frowned. "It is as much of a danger to the user as it is to the victim. While poisonous mist is usually made with a toxic the user is immune to, either naturally as in case of some clans and in the rest acquired the immunity."

"That is a very good answer," Anko said and tossed at Sakura a vial. "What is inside?"

Sakura took the vial and rolled it between her fingers, trying to see the color of its content. "Colorless," she mused. "Which makes it hard to detect and can be slipped into almost anything."

"And is odorless, too. It is one of the favorites of our ANBU. Especially for the missions when we can't have any weapons available to us." Anko took the vial from Sakura and allowed herself a predatory smile. "How to explain it. All of the ANBU go through treatment that makes them mostly immune to the poison and one of the favorite ways of getting it to the target is skin contact."

"You rub it onto your skin?"

"Skin, lips and several other places," Anko said, making Sakura wince and back away. "Yes, it sounds disgusting and can be, but it is better than praying to the gods that nobody finds your weapons. You would be surprised how sloppy certain people can be when given a desirable man or a woman. They're dumb and touching them and letting poison work is much less troublesome than slipping a kunai under their rib."

"So, how can I protect from such poisons?"

"Mostly watch out who touches you," Anko said and grinned at Sakura. "Luckily for you, I am one of the most infamous poison users of Konoha so I will teach you a thing or two. Now, since we are done with the more boring theory and you seem competent enough for now. Want to try to make some of the simpler poisons?"

Sakura blinked at this and looked at Anko as if she grew a second head.

"Making poisons is in my opinion more important than studying them," Anko said quietly as she looked around the lab. "If you know how to make them your teammates suddenly appreciate your presence more and making antidotes can be easier. And thirdly, you get to see what works and what doesn't, how to mix the ingredients or what elements are good and which aren't. A thing that a medic also needs, Tsunade-sama is the greatest medic out there, but she knows so much about poisons that she can kill you as easily as she heals you."

Sakura nodded and steeled herself, aware of how unpleasant the next few hours could prove to be. She heard some things about how poisons were tested and she didn't fancy an idea of doing it on her own.

"You won't get to taste the poisons on anything yet," Anko said and patted Sakura on the shoulder. "You do good and we might move onto something more pleasant for you. In fact, we will as there are things that all kunoichi need to know and considering composition of your team, you need it even more. But that will be later, first physical fitness and more taijutsu."

o-0-o

Kakashi was confused when he saw Naruto in his new clothes. He looked more like a ninja and screamed less kill me, even if the spiral on the back of his hoodie was a huge attention magnet for most villages wanting new bloodlines. However in the dark blue, almost black pants, shirt and a hoodie with several wide stripes of red he could pass for a ninja.

"A wardrobe change?" Kakashi inquired curiously.

"As much as I like orange it isn't the best color for hiding," Naruto said and Kakashi eye-smiled at this. "And Jiji brought me that storage scroll so I decided to make use of its content."

Kakashi made a note to ask what scroll his student was talking about. The Hokage could be infuriating at times and that didn't improve Kakashi's mood much. However it also seemed that whatever was in the scroll was from Uzushio and from wherever else the Hokage thought it was needed.

"That's good," Kakashi said and looked at his student. "Make three clones, have them practice for Rasengan and you will work on something else."

"What?"

"Elemental jutsu." Naruto's eyes widened at this. Not many genin were taught those jutsu, in many cases because there was no need, but in many more because they didn't posses the necessary chakra reserves or control. "You have stupid amounts of chakra. More than most Kages and Kyuubi, that's sealed inside of you, is even more chakra. Which gives you an advantage over most ninja you can face in the near future."

Naruto frowned at this, his mind working as he tried to guess what Kakashi meant. "I can toss jutsu for however long I want, while they need to conserve it?"

"That is one thing. Second is that the affinity, each ninja has an affinity for one or more elements, matters less. Yes, you trying to use Katon jutsu which is most likely a total anathema to your affinity, would be an extremely ineffective idea, but one that would work."

"So, where do we start?"

"This," Kakashi said as he pulled out a piece of brown paper. "Brown because of the sheer amount of chakra it is infused with. The trees from which it is made are fed chakra since they are a sapling and anything that's made from them reacts to chakra. In case of this makes natures one has manifest themselves."

"Themselves?"

"There are five natures and outside of rare cases, namely Kekkei Genkai and one Kekkei Tota, you have a single affinity," Kakashi said and channeled his chakra into the paper. Making it wrinkle the second the chakra passed through it. "What I have is Raiton, extremely offensive element that has a number of different uses."

"If it wrinkles for Raiton," Naruto said and Kakashi looked at him. "How does it behave if I have say Katon chakra?"

"Amuse me and tell me how," Kakashi said and paused. "You should be able to guess it. Think of how each of the elements would behave."

"Water soaks everything it touches, that's kinda obvious," Naruto said and Kakashi nodded. "Fire burns down things, wind shreds them and earth is just there?"

"Doton chakra makes the paper crumble," Kakashi said and reached to ruffle Naruto's hair. "Let's see what chakra do you have."

Naruto took a paper offered to him by Kakashi and channeled chakra through it. For a moment nothing happened, then it was sliced down the middle. The line perfectly straight and the edges sharp.

"Fuuton, just like your father," Kakashi said with a frown. "I was expecting you to inherit the Uzumaki affinity for Suiton. Fuuton is the only element I don't know much. Partially because of how troublesome it is to use when your affinity is Raiton. I can teach you how to master it, but for anything more you'll need help of Asuma. Before you ask, yes, the names of the countries indicate what is the main nature in them. It usually means that majority of ninja hailing from one is proficient in it, but at times second affinity is also strong. For us it is Katon and Doton, for Kiri Suiton and Fuuton. The rest, I'll leave you to find out on your own."

"So Asuma sensei is the one I should ask for help?" Naruto asked.

"For help with jutsu, yes, for mastering the element itself. I can teach you just fine," Kakashi said with an eye-smile. "Make three clones."

Naruto nodded and three copies of the blonde popped into existence, making Kakashi wonder how much chakra his student had and how easily could he use it. But then he shrugged and made a clone of himself, giving it barely any chakra. "Send them with my clone, he will show you how to start the training."

"So, sensei, what do you plan to do?"

"Work on your taijutsu and usage of weapons," Kakashi said with an unnervingly cheerful eye-smile. One that made shivers pass down the Naruto's spine. "They're sloppy and need to be improved, now."

o-0-o

Sasuke sat on his bed and frowned as he looked at the content of the scrolls he managed to acquire. He couldn't force himself to admitting that he stole them, but also it was not like he planned to keep them permanently. Once he had the necessary information, he would return them back to the Archive.

Also, ninja almost never stole things. They just acquired them for the person or the organization that paid them, sometimes kept those things for themselves, but by then, the original and supposed owner usually was dead and buried.

The reason of his confusion was not the originality of the scroll, as far as he could tell they were genuine. What unsettled him the most was the lack of almost any Uchiha dead in the attack. He always knew that his clan took very few losses during that event, but seeing barely few dead on a list that went into thousands was chilling.

He knew that the name he was looking for wouldn't be on the main list so he skipped it and focused on the one that strangely contained only senior jonin and ANBU. A thing that made him pause, what could have happened that so many ANBU and jonin died in one place. From what he knew there was no reason for them to die so suddenly and at once.

His eyes slipped over the list and then he paused as a name Uzumaki caught his attention. A single one on the list of over two dozens. "Naruto's father is Namikaze Minato, yet he has his mother's name," Sasuke murmured and paused. "His name is Uzumaki."

He smacked himself in the forehead and calmed down almost immediately. The temper of the Uchiha could be short, yet the excitement shoved aside his frustration. He finally had two names that he could use and actually try to discover more. Assuming that as a genin he could get access to anything remotely useful. Everybody was lying with the history of their village and lives of its heroes and genin didn't have much of an access to the true version of the events.

At least what they had access to was less obvious lies and manipulations than what was fed to the Academy students and the civilian population. He knew why it was done and understood the reason, after all traitors weren't liked by any village and all the ways to limit the number of them were good. Not noble or moral, but those two things meant little for most shinobi.

He pulled out a sheet of paper he had laying around and started to write down the places where something useful could have been placed. He immediately crossed out of his list the Archives and the Academy as with his access he wouldn't find more than the usual propaganda. The chance to find something useful was almost none and all he would do would be waste his precious time and make the chunin working there wonder what he was doing.

He was the last loyal Uchiha, he scoffed at that, the adoration of some girls was infuriating at the best of times and he despised the fact that he sometimes couldn't simply walk through the village without any kind of the attention. It had some perks, like more leeway when he did something not entirely right, but he doubted that looking at the data related to the former Hokage would pass unseen.

No, they would notice it, Sasuke thought unhappily and then considered the next position on his list. The cemetery was a thing he wasn't sure of, but considering the scarsity of options he had it was possibly the best place to at least get an idea of what was going on. There was the option of asking his sensei...

"No," Sasuke spoke. "Kakashi-sensei is a former ANBU. He would ask questions I'm not comfortable answering. I need to have a better idea first, going to him with this is not enough."

o-0-o

Jiraiya sipped his sake as he sat at one of the more quiet tables at the most expensive brothel in the town he was stopping. Across the table sat his informant and he wondered how sane she was, most of the information she so far gave him was reliable. However what he was hearing from her now made him frown.

"So, a high ranking ninja with Konoha sign was in Kusa two weeks ago?" Jiraiya asked quietly and his informant nodded. "Can you describe the way they look?"

"Medium height, has glasses, silver hair, violet and gray clothes."

Jiraiya closed his eyes for a second, trying to imagine whoever it was. He had a nagging suspicion he found someone similar, but they weren't high ranking Konoha ninja, nor did he know about them being out of the village. "Do you know what did they do?"

"Had a meeting with the elders and that's all I managed to hear before the ANBU were told to leave."

Jiraiya closed his eyes and pulled out a faint sketch of one Yakushi Kabuto, one that was nicknamed eternal genin by some jonin. However quite a few in the ANBU suspected him of being more than a genin, his abilities were too high not to pass the exam for five times in the row. Not to mention that he disappeared from the surface of earth quite a few times.

"Is that him?" Jiraiya asked, showing the sketch to his friendly Kusa ANBU.

"Yes," she said and shot Jiraiya a questioning look. "Do you know him?"

"Personally? No, he is supposed to be a genin. While at the same time being one of the brightest medics we had in our service since the time of Tsunade-hime. That's the official story, but I have a suspicion that he is an agent of a certain snake and here I will need your help. Whenever I travel across Kusa I have your ANBU on my back, can you do a minor investigation on my behalf?"

"That depends," she said, playing with her mask that laid on the table between them. "I'm not suicidal and don't want to get caught doing something illegal."

"It's not illegal," Jiraiya said and grunted. "Well, it's as illegal as any operation done by ANBU. Anyways, in Kusa there is a certain man that owns a warehouse and sells drugs. That's his official cover. In truth he deals in far darker things and I'm sure he is tied to Orochimaru."

"What does he do?"

"Sells humans to Orochimaru and body parts," Jiraiya said. "That's the things I managed to track down to him. He is supposed to have a couple of nukenin on his payroll. If not, I would have paid him a visit, but since I'm not welcomed by your leaders I don't want to cause mess in Kusa."

"I can do it," she said and snatched a scroll Jiraiya placed on the table. "Three S-rank missions payments, one for me, one for my team and one for bribes. And you will need to shelter all of those I will free."

"Very well," Jiraiya said and frowned as he tried to think about the timing necessary for it. "In a week I will have two ANBU squads on the border of Hi no Kuni. They will know what to expect and will have trained medics with them."

"I will be traveling with exhausted and injured civilians... Even if I use all of the hidden passages and rivers I can use it will take me over two weeks. Maybe less, but the chase won't be that easy to fool."

"The Hokage won't allow me to order our ANBU into your land." Jiraiya grimaced and looked at her. "You know why."

"Yes, too damn well."

With that she stood up and left the establishment. Letting Jiraiya enjoy his sake and ponder about the future and what his insane teammate was up to. His recent operations were more and more obvious and less from behind the scenes. Not to mention that this Kabuto guy was a person Ibiki should catch and interrogate, yet there was not enough solid evidence that wouldn't make it look like a purge.

The T&I could drag whoever it wanted for interrogation, but better they were right or their heads would roll as the Hokage was rarely pleased when a wrong ninja was turned into a wreck and that was the least worry. The clans tended to be furious when one of theirs was arrested without any justifications and most of them had loads of dirt on the leadership of Konoha. Perhaps even more than Danzo and didn't hesitate to use it when needed.

"This will explode in our faces," Jiraiya said with some disgust as he finished the sake. "Time to go to Konoha and talk with the sensei. Maybe he has some secret plan, but as of now Orochimaru is playing on too many boards at the same time and sensei isn't much better."

o-0-o

Haruno Sakura was dead tired as she stumbled into Yamanaka Flower Shop, she weakly waved to Ino in greeting before almost collapsing onto the floor.

"What's wrong?" Ino asked walking out from behind the counter.

"Sensei," Sakura said and rasped for breath. "My sensei decided to assign each of us an individual sensei and a scary kunoichi called Anko is now my sensei."

Ino blinked, color draining of her face. "Anko? Mitarashi Anko?"

"Yes," Sakura said as she managed to regain some energy. "What's wrong about her?"

"Well, she works in the T&I and is a former member of the ANBU," Ino said, her eyes were full of pity. "Her reputation in those circles is scary and many outright refuse working under her."

"Hold on, hold on. What is this T&I?"

"Division that gathers data, breaks codes, eliminates enemy spies and analyzes information we acquire from our various nets," Inoichi said as he slipped unheard both by Ino and Sakura. "Both of you are supposed to not know that it exists until you are at least taking the chunin exams. Not that it is that well guarded of a secret. Better than some other secrets of ours, but it is still supposed to be a secret."

At this both girls blushed, but Inoichi just waved his hand and shrugged.

"It's not that bad if you know about it," he said and then the gaze of his eyes darkened. "But don't mention it to strangers and other genin. Since you are training with Anko, I guess you came here for some of the plants to make the poisons she so likes?"

"Hai, Inoichi-sama," Sakura said.

"Well, Ino, it's a time for you to shine and show what you know about plants," Inoichi said looking at his daughter. "It is a time to test your knowledge on them anyways."

Ino's form slumped, but she nodded and started to rummage through the various baskets, bowls and jars with plants and their dried versions.

o-0-o

Anko slipped into the T&I completely unseen by the sentries on guard outside and stalked towards Ibiki. "Ibiki-kun, I need a favor from you," she purred, her voice having a sultry edge to it.

Ibiki looked up from the paperwork he was filling and let out a growl. One that would make anybody else, but Anko back off and wonder what kind of a creature did they just wake up. "What?" he asked.

"I need a mission for my cute little genin," Anko said and rolled her eyes at his frown. "Training on dummies and mannequins and clones is all nice and good, but she needs some real target to kill."

"Civilian or something tougher?" Ibiki asked and reached for a thick scroll. "I still have fifty informants of the various spy networks to remove."

"Mhm~," Anko purred as she sat down on the desk and looked at the list. "I want to have her a chance to use some more clean ways of assassinating targets," she said, her eyes swiping over the list. "So I think one of the genin of her year or up to two years behind would be ideal."

"There are two that I want gone," Ibiki said and reached for two thin folder. "Not that good, but nosy and poke very uncomfortable places. She kills them both, I'm willing to give her an A-rank mission pay."

"Those two will work," Anko said as she snatched the folders. "Give me two weeks and they will be dead."

"Make sure they look like an accident or something more innocent. Or make it look like a failed attempt of rape," Ibiki said and shrugged. "As long as the jonin sensei stays off my back I don't care how your pet deals with them."

"I will think of something," Anko said with a seductive smile. "You know that I always make sure the mission gets done."

"Sometimes too well," Ibiki grunted and glared at her. "Out!"

o-0-o

The Hokage lit his pipe and enjoyed the silence for few moments before looking at the reports from the ANBU he dispatched to follow the families that had the sigils of the Uchiha and Senju clans. At the worst it looked promising, at the very best, they would be a huge reinforcement for the village.

There were in total maybe three hundred people in total, a good number of them barely teens, making them an extremely potent force in the future. Now however he needed to approach them and peacefully convince to join the village. A thing that could prove to be a challenge or an extremely dangerous one, too.

"Fetch me Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai," he called out and the ANBU guarding his office disappeared in silent, smokeless _shunshin._

With that taken care of he studied the notes. The families were nomads, moving through the wilder and less well-known parts of Hi no Kuni which could have explained how was it that they lost sight of the rest of their clans. And it added a difficulty in actually finding them in that forest. He knew it was a dark and dangerous place, more dark than dangerous as most of the criminals was chased out of it.

What he mostly worried about was reaching out to those families and convincing them to come to Konoha. The truth was that he desperately needed those families and their bloodlines to add to the potential of Konoha. The more men he had the stronger the village was and if the reports were true all of those clansmen were trained in the ninja arts and at least proficient in their usage.

The doors opened and the three jonin entered the office, getting him out of his thoughts and bringing to the more immediate problem. Finding the damn nomads...

**o-0-o**

**A/N – Yes, Hiruzen is finally making his move and as a reminder for some of you, he has the title Shinobi no Kami for a damn reason and as an aged man that wasn't prepared for combat he managed to seal away Shodaime and Nidaime and cripple Orochimaru. Here he will have more raw firepower and will know that it can erupt into violence, but spoilers...**

**As for Sakura, she isn't suited for trading blows with Sasuke/Naruto/Zabuza/Kakashi/Mei on equal terms and as such needs to use less glorious means. She will be a medic, a spy and an aassasin that will stay in the shadows while her teammates gather all the attention of the enemy. And she has enough of looks and grace to possibly play the role of a decently pretty prostitute if need be and a chakra scalpel to the aorta will kill someone without much noise. **

**Sasuke is smart, but he lacks any evidence he could check against each other very easily and his access to it is really restricted. One, Minato was a Hokage, thus any data about him won't be easily accessible to genin without causing questions. Two, Kushina and Naruto are both jinchuuriki, which is a tightly guarded secret and if he started to look in their direction Ibiki might take notice and invite him for a chat.**

**Reviews:**

_happyguest – _Sasuke is a spoiled brat because of the way the village treats him. I mean, who wouldn't be. He has all of his baggage of nasty memories left to him by Itachi, which might block him from promotions for a long time. He also has his avenger attitude towards Itachi which is fine as he has that drive to improve, but the lack of thinking is bad.

He needs to cope with his past, move past bratty attitude and behavior and become more emotionally stable. He can think, just needs to not turn it off when he is in the middle of battle.

Sakura, emotions is one thing. Second is that while Ino is still not much of a fighter as she is mainly a support for her team and I understand that. She is from a ninja family and the knowledge what comes with their job – murders, thievery, seduction, plotting and so on – is a thing she's aware of. Sakura is less so and what Anko does is give her a very brutal and fast crash course from how mean the life of a shinobi can be.

Naruto and keeping his mouth shut when needed, that comes with age and experience and wisdom. Well, more with wisdom than experience, but details. The more time he spends with Kakashi and ninja that actually give him some attention and actually teach him he should pick up on their habits.

Pairings, Sasuke and Naruto are useful chess pieces for the Hokage to use and secure peace and alliances. In feudal age most of the marriages done between various nobles was first out of interests and second out of love. Naruto has a heritage that makes him the most desirable man in the whole world outside of a reigning Kage/Daimyo, Sasuke close to it.

Hiruzen and his successor won't make those moves without their at least forced agreement, but they're not stupid people and know that while political benefits are important. An extremely pissed off jinchuuriki is worse. The whole circus will start after the events of the chunin exams that will be messy and might wipe out a village or two.

I might leave a tiny, tiny teaser. His pairing comes from S... *laughs maniacally*


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N – Another chapter done, took way less than I expected, but that's only better for you and it seems that most people guessed the pairing. Good for you.**

**o-0-o**

"Did you summon us, Hokage-sama?" Yuuhi Kurenai asked, getting the Hokage out of his musings.

"Yes, yes, I did," the Hokage said and motioned for them to sit in the three chairs in front of him. "There is a certain matter that you and your teams will handle." He placed on the table a map of the Hi no Kuni, positions of the nomads marked clearly. "In a week, you with your teams, in case of Kakashi-kun team, just his current apprentice, will accompany me as I go there to establish contact with them and negotiate them joining Konoha."

"Hokage-sama," Asuma said and the Hokage flinched at the formal way of his son. "Why is it that our teams are those joining you? Surely you could have chosen any team of ANBU or jonin."

"I could have and the ANBU would be more than willing. However, I don't want to be surrounded by the most lethal assassins we have when I try to negotiate a peaceful agreement. You three should have the necessary capabilities. While the genin look less threatening and more friendly than the assassins."

"That is a fair point," Kurenai said and then frowned, looking at the data. "But they're not used to such missions and might not handle themselves well enough."

"Kurenai, have more trust in your students," the Hokage said and then looked at them. "What do you think about what ANBU is reporting?"

"If it is genuine, then we are lucky," Asuma said carefully. "Three hundred more people is not much compared to the population of the village, but it is a lot of firepower and at least two Kekkei Genkai that we can add to our collection."

"If they're nomads, the ANBU could have missed around ten to twenty percents," Kakashi added, making everybody look at him. "I'm a tracker and trained quite a few ANBU about getting the job done. The nomads are the only group that I despise tracking. They can move in few groups at once and usually are as good as the trackers that want to catch them. They're ninja, they are constantly on the move and need to live in an environment that doesn't forgive mistakes."

"Shodaime-sama mentioned that during the period before he and Madara founded Konoha the life was far harsher for the shinobi," Hiruzen quietly said. "There is a good chance that they live the same way our ancestors lived and that means that even their children will be dangerous enemies."

"The chances that Konoha bring and the opportunity to have a shelter and live in peace, not worrying about someone raiding in the middle of the night is a thing that can convince them," Kurenai pointed out. "Stability and the peace are things they should appreciate."

"Submitting to the rule of a Kage can be a tough thing to swallow for them," Asuma said and looked at Kurenai. "You have that Inuzuka in your team, they're in Konoha for close to forty years and still have issues with understanding command chain and often need to be quite literary beaten to death before they submit."

"Indeed," Hiruzen said and smiled. "They will most likely demand some kind of a challenge. One on one duel would be the most likely one. That's what we did when some of the wandering clans wanted to join Konoha. Their leader against me or each of us got to pick champions on some criteria we agreed upon."

"And they might try to test the younger generation, to see if the future of Konoha is safe and they should toss in their lot with our," Kakashi said and eye-smiled. "Naruto should be more than capable of beating most genin. Asuma, could you show him some Fuuton, he has that and for all my jutsu arsenal, I don't have many Fuuton."

"That is true and some might not be pure combat." The Hokage shrugged. "Some of them might be more refined and harder to pass. However they might also join us without any challenges, especially if they see that they benefit more." He gave his jonin a look and then looked at the scrolls. "In a week we will depart. Until then prepare your genin and don't do anything that will put them in the hospital."

"I'll stay," Kakashi said as Asuma and Kurenai left the room. "Why should I only take Naruto with me? It's Sasuke's clan, not his that we're about to contact."

"Yes," Hiruzen said and reached into one of the drawers of his desk. "This is a certain and a very interesting analysis written for me by Inoichi." He placed the scroll in front of himself and looked at it. "Sasuke is an avenger and a shinobi we can't really trust not to snap and go rogue. On a mission that can spiral out of control very fast I prefer a shinobi I know can behave."

"It might change his view of the village and might make him appreciate it," Kakashi said and the Hokage arched an eyebrow. "He should recognize the benefits he gets from being loyal to Konoha."

"No." That single word made Kakashi recoil as if someone slapped him across his face. "No, he stays in the village until Yamato and Inoichi deem him stable and reliable enough. He is your shinobi, Kakashi, but it is me who decides what each of the shinobi does. I tell you jump, you jump."

"I understand, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said and bowed to his liege before walking out of the room.

o-0-o

Naruto sat on the surface of the water, his mind wholly focused on his body and chakra flowing through it. He exhaled and his eyes opened as a chain slid out of his hand, this time it went much more smoothly than the last time. It was also much less draining on his body, he knew that he should take it slow, but the chains were so much fun and so useful.

He smiled and whipped the chain at the nearby tree. The construct of chakra smashed through the trunk, splinters flying in all directions. He grinned and and wrapped it around one of branches before easily tossing the massive chunk of wood into the air. He rarely enjoyed himself so much and the chains gave him so much freedom and fun he didn't want them gone, yet he could feel the weariness spread across his body so he cut the chakra flow to the chain and let out an unhappy sigh. Right as Kakashi-sensei appeared in front of him.

"Decided to ignore the rules, eh?" Kakashi asked, his sole eye focused on the demolished training ground. "I told you not to use it beyond simply summoning it."

Naruto flushed, but then he nodded. "It's just that the feeling is so hard to say no to."

"Power," Kakashi said and Naruto looked at him. "Everybody wants that and the chains give you that. I'm not saying that power is bad, it's just a thing you have, but look at Orochimaru or Uchiha Itachi and you have an example of what can happen to you."

"Uchiha..., Uchiha Itachi?" Naruto asked as he tried to assign that name to someone or something.

"Aye, S-rank nukenin, older brother of Sasuke," Kakashi said and sighed, sitting down. "He was a rising star of his generation. An ANBU Captain at thirteen, when most of people are admitted to ANBU at his age. Then something snapped inside of him and he killed his whole clan, but not Sasuke. He would have been a contender for the title of the Godaime, but he did it and now is one of the most wanted nukenin."

"So he is the man that Sasuke wants to kill?" Naruto asked, a flashback to the first day of the existence of the team appearing in his mind. I want to kill a certain man, Sasuke told them on that fateful spring noon.

"Aye," Kakashi said. "I don't blame him for that desire, but it's not the best idea until he knows the whole truth and you should know how covered in lies our world is."

Naruto dumbly nodded and Kakashi ruffled his hair, making him scowl fiercely.

"Time for you to train," the jonin said. "I talked with Asuma and he will wait for you on the training ground of his team. Even if he looks laid back and behaves as such he was a bodyguard of the Daimyo for a reason and you shouldn't underestimate him."

"So he's like you?" Naruto asked. "Lazy and always late?"

Kakashi scoffed and before he could say anything Naruto was gone. Not even a cloud of smoke suggesting that he was there seconds ago.

o-0-o

Shikaku looked at one of the pieces of shogi placed on the board, sipped some sake, the burning in his throat a pleasant sensation as he tried to mull over one topic. "Those ninja Hokage-sama hopes to get when those two clans join us will be a pain to manage," he finally said and looked at Inoichi. "Don't you agree?"

"Give people some credit," patriarch of the Yamanaka clan muttered. "Most of them is spineless idiots, but at times even them can find two brain cells that work. And remember what clans those two are."

"The two clans that spent centuries killing each other? Or perhaps the two clans that founded Konoha?"

Inoichi snorted and looked at the board. "You are smart, Shikaku, why are you so annoyed?"

"Because it is me who will need to evaluate their capabilities, assign to teams and deal with all of the mess that comes with adding new shinobi to our forces. Especially shinobi that don't really have any ties to the village," Shikaku exploded, or well, as much as any Nara can. "Yes, they're potentially a huge boost to the capabilities of our forces and you know that we need that. But while everybody that knows about their existence seems focused on that, there is also this small issue that we need to find a way to integrate them into our forces."

"What about adding those that are on genin level to the better and stronger teams of genin we have?" Inoichi asked and shrugged. "If they're going to learn what they need to know for working with us, it is only with the genin."

"Make the jonin-sensei accept them and I'll happily introduce it," Shikaku said and looked at Inoichi. "But we both know that we need a lot of effort to force some jonin to take teams. One more brat will make some run away screaming and some will outright tell me to shut up and leave them be."

"They wouldn't do it, would they?"

Shikaku sighed and sipped more sake before he moved his piece on the board. "It depends," he said and a silence fell for several moments. "Some jonin are teachers and enjoying passing their knowledge onto the next generations of genin. Yet they're rare and sought after, ANBU, more promising chunin, all manners of other ninja often needs training from them and in many cases training genin is the last thing they do."

"Fair enough," Inoichi said and reached for his own sake. "So, what about the rest?"

"Some, like Kakashi or Asuma are easier to work with. For all their quirks they know that the genin needs to be trained and that they're the best people to do it. They're a pain to convince to take a team, but then they do their job." Shikaku sighed and rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "Being lazy is a trait of my clan, but even I am irritated by some of our fellow jonin."

"Maybe you should take a team on your own?" Inoichi suggested with a smug smirk. "A Nara, jonin commander too, that has a team might make some of them try not to be that lazy? I mean, even Anko of all people has a genin now. Mind you, a single one and Kakashi used some favors, but she has that girl."

Shikaku almost dropped his sake as he looked at his friend. "Anko, Mitarashi bloody Anko has a genin?" he asked after few moments and then shook his head. "She didn't want a team this year and I quite remember her threatening me with her snakes."

"Kakashi is special," Inoichi said with a shrug. "He is close to insane, but special and worth his weight in gold. Anyways, my suggestion that you take the team might not be the worst. Some of the slowpokes will do everything not to be outdone by a lazy Nara."

"Perhaps..., Yoshino would approve of that," Shikaku said and winced. "Genin teams are troublesome and time consuming."

"Well, you get to pay less in taxes as a bonus," Inoichi pointed out. "And we know that your pay as a jonin sensei and a jonin commander would have a nice boost, too."

"You suggested something brilliant, Inoichi," Shikaku said and looked at the board. "We can finish it some other time. Now I think we need to go to my study."

"Shikaku," Inoichi said, shaking his head. "Did I mention that I'm scared of your intelligence and mind?"

"Many times," Shikaku said as he got up and slipped into the building. Subconsciously staying close to or in the shadows. When others feared the shadows, Nara loved them and felt more comfortable in the darkness, their strange affinity giving them an uncanny advantage at night.

"So, what's the idea?" Inoichi asked as both of them were in Shikaku's study.

"Good old carrot approach to our problem," Shikaku said and grinned. "We all know that most of our peers is greedy as heck and hates taxes. Probably less than being ordered around, but still."

"Do you really think this will work?" Inoichi asked and frowned as he tried to remember the size of a pay for a jonin sensei. "And won't it blow up our finances?"

"Frankly?" Shikaku asked and Inoichi nodded. "Not quite. Yes, how much of the pay gets returned to the treasury in form of taxes is significant, but it's not and never was the main source of income for us. Even a good B-rank mission gives more than an average tax paid by a single jonin. And the more genin we have the more jonin we can get and get more missions done."

"That is true," Inoichi said mulling over what Shikaku said. "What about the Daimyo and the money we get from him for simply being a village and giving him some troops?"

"Well, that is flat income. Adjusted for inflation, but still, there wasn't a major bump in its size since the end of the last war," Shikaku said with a shrug. "Most of those thirty million we get a year is spent resupplying our forces, maintaining our outputs and so on. What's actually left and is paid to the treasury is maybe a million. It's not a huge amount of money and usually gets lost."

"ANBU, T&I and so on have the budgets nobody knows that they exist," Inoichi commented.

"That's where we lose the money we don't want to admit we have," Shikaku said and smiled thinly. "Most of the money we make from the taxes everybody pays, merchants passing through the village and the missions. Half of the mission pay going into the treasury is a lot of money if you consider things."

"An average genin team can make one, maybe two C-ranks missions a week. Ten percent of which goes to the treasury."

"Indeed. Do you see now why I don't think that giving them financial incentives won't hurt us much?"

"Yes."

"The income might actually increase as we will have more troops and bigger teams means less of a problem with doing all of the C-rank missions and sending chunin for the higher paying ones."

"I was thinking that I could take a genin team on my own," Inoichi mused. "It's been too long since I took one and trained them. Ino made me remember how much fun it is to train new generations of ninja."

o-0-o

Jiraiya had a scowl on his face as he entered Konoha. The chunin posted at the gate not even bothering to check his identity. When he was mad nobody short of the Sandaime Hokage wanted to provoke him and considering his power many did it out of fear.

He stomped down the main street, people scattering out of his way and even two ANBU squads he sensed took massive detours, just not to provoke him. Perhaps he was too angry and frustrated at the sensei, but that urgent summon that forced him to stop working on his next book and kept his attention away from Orochimaru. First thing he could swallow, for the second his sensei would answer for.

Entering the tower he ignored the staff and waiting nobles and merchants and even Hyuuga Hiashi and pushed past them. Most of them glaring at him before realizing he was Jiraiya of the Sannin and he was mad, extremely mad at someone and better for them and their health was get out of his way.

He opened the door and glared at the jonin and chunin inside. "Out," he barked and the ninja disappeared. Far faster than he assumed even a ninja could move, but fear was a very good motivator and getting between the reigning Hokage and an irrate Sennin was a very unhealthy thing. "Sensei, we need to talk. Now!"

"You won't tell me what to do, Jiraiya," Hiruzen said calmly. "I'm the Hokage and you better remember that. You are a shinobi of Konoha and you owe me some loyalty."

"I do owe you something," Jiraiya said and frowned sitting down in one of the comfy armchairs. "Or do I owe it to Konoha? That last summon pulled me away from keeping an eye on our friend, Orochimaru."

"I'm aware of that and I'm aware of what you're planning to do in Kusa. That's why not two, but six ANBU squads will be send there to keep an eye on our troublesome neighbor and secure the people we will free."

"I don't think that Kusa will do something that will put them in a bad position," Jiraiya said and looked at his sensei. "Now, what is so bloody important that I can't in peace figure out the whole extent of the plots done by Orochimaru?"

"Uchiha and Senju clans."

At those words Jiraiya felt his jaw slacken and almost smashed against the floor. "Senju is just Tsunade and Uchiha are reduced to Itachi and Sasuke," the Toad Sennin said and frowned. "What did you find?"

"Better would be what Danzo managed to hid when we weren't looking," the Hokage said and shook his head. "I didn't see him or the rest of my teammates for the past few weeks. I think they don't know what is happening."

"And I guess that the panic in all other villages is also of your doing? My informants and friends mentioned that other villages are trying to figure out how many of their spies are still alive and can be trusted."

"That's Ibiki and Inoichi. Their target mostly was Danzo, well, at first. Then the spies also got caught in the middle and dragged along. Most of the oldest and most knowledgeable ones are still alive, but we don't want the Kages too scared."

Jiraiya nodded and pulled out a small scroll before passing it to his sensei. "This contains all of the information that I managed to put together on Orochimaru until the moment you summoned me. Kusa is I think contemplating doing something with him, Ame is a pain to read, but Hanzo is Hanzo and he might attack us. Taki wants some payback and there is Suna."

"I didn't expect so many banding together to attack us," Hiruzen said. "Not now anyways, I think that we both know how similar alliances in the past ended."

"With everybody at each other's throat and spending more time and attention on plotting against each other instead of us," Jiraiya said with a smirk. "A thing that can work in our favor, more than the sheer numbers would suggest. I doubt they will outnumber us anyways."

"They might come close to that. But that can wait, now, the Uchiha and Senju. They were found originally by one of his ROOT and by some stroke of good luck he didn't understand the importance of the discovery. I sent recently ANBU trackers to find them and gather information and in a week I will go to meet them."

"And bribe them to join Konoha?"

"If possible, yes. We need that manpower and the strength they would provide us with. The ANBU estimated their strength at three hundred per clan give or take twenty percent. Most of which they estimate to be at a chunin level."

"Not that big of a force. Significant, but not the biggest clan or unit I saw."

Hiruzen sighed and Jiraiya frowned. "You know how important those clans were to us. And you know that quantity doesn't mean quality and you should know that those shinobi can give us an edge we need."

"And make most of the competition crap themselves at the exam," Jiraiya said with a grin. "They think that the founders are gone. Seeing Uchiha and Senju signs on the clothes of our ninja might make them panic and stop some of their more foolish plans."

"Or make them consider staying loyal to us. Power and a display of it might cow some more rash players into obedience and force them to think. Not that I think it will happen. Stakes will be too high and they will be committed to the cause." The Hokage paused and Jiraiya looked at his mentor and in a way a surrogate father. "I would like you to find Tsunade, but first, tell me. What do you think of Nara Shikaku as the Godaime?"

Jiraiya jerked in the armchair. The piece of furniture creaking in protest. That was not a thing he expected. "He is as lazy as any Nara is, but he has their intellect and Inoichi and Choza will back him no matter what happens. He knows most of the plans and probably created most of them and is not a major character in any Bingo book. A thing that might be to his advantage."

"Our enemies won't know what to expect of him," the Hokage said and smiled. "You just proved most of my thoughts about him. I was thinking about you, Kakashi, Tsunade or him."

"Tsunade would murder you and then resurrect you before murdering you once again, sensei," Jiraiya said with a grimace. "She has too many bad memories related to the title. Not that I blame her. Nawaki and Dan both wanted the title and were killed. I am too useful freely roaming the land and most of my informants can meet with me because I technically don't have any sign of allegiance to Konoha. As a Kage that would be impossible. Kakashi would be close to Tsunade in terms of outrage, just subtler."

"While Shikaku is too damn smart not to know that he is currently the best choice for the Godaime Hokage," Hiruzen said and reached for his pipe. "And hopefully he can keep major wars away from us for the next few decades. Kyuubi and Third War drained us dry, both financially and in terms of manpower."

Jiraiya frowned, but then he nodded. "I have an idea on how to improve this, at least a bit." He then got up and approached the window. "Where will I find my godson?"

"Training grounds."

o-0-o

"Fuuton chakra, eh?" Asuma asked as he sat down on the stump of a tree and looked at Naruto. "Fuuton, hardly ever seen in Hi no Kuni. Commonly found in Kaze no Kuni. In Konoha there are three people proficient in Fuuton. Myself, Tou-san, well Hokage-sama or Sandaime-Sama to you! and Shimura Danzo. You don't want Danzo to teach you, neither does the Sandaime...things would get...complicated if Danzo trained you. Do not get me wrong he is an incredibly powerful shinobi it's just his training methods are inhumane."

"Why only so few are proficient in Fuuton?"

"One thing is that opposed to almost any other element it doesn't have any purely defensive jutsu." Naruto wanted to open his mouth, but Asuma waved his hand, silencing him. "Yes, even Katon and Raiton can be used in a defensive manner. Fuuton, not so much. Second thing is that as strangely as it sounds, it is more suited for the kenjutsu masters."

"The chakra makes the blades sharper?"

"Sharper and can extend the length as well." Asuma got up and pulled out his knives. "They're made from an alloy that channels chakra and shows it nature. That chakra flowing through it strengthens it and gives it some unique properties. Normal chakra makes them stronger and sharper, Fuuton makes it even sharper."

Naruto nodded and watched with wide eyes as the trench knives carved a nearby rock as if it was warm butter, not a chunk of stone. They seemed to shape and change the rock as if it wasn't even there and the material gave up under their assault.

"That's _Hien_," Asuma explained and hid his knives. "The most potent Fuuton jutsu in Konoha's arsenal. You could do it with any other nature of chakra, but Fuuton makes it most spectacular and potent."

Naruto slowly swallowed, the image of the rock carved apart by knives still visible in his mind. He shook his head and managed to regain some composure as his face returned to the healthier color.

"That I won't teach you for few more weeks," Asuma said and smiled. "But there is a bunch of other jutsu that I can show you that are somewhat useful for you. Spitting out bullets that can drill through any wall or summoning gusts of wind is an advantage of Fuuton."

Naruto's eyes shone with joy and some malign hunger deeper below. He wanted to learn new jutsu and there was this small dream of his of becoming a Hokage. The strongest or one of the strongest ninja in the whole village.

o-0-o

Jiraiya looked at Kakashi and frowned. That kid was more broody and more lost in his memories when Jiraiya last saw him. Something changed in him and the cratered look of the Training Ground Three suggested that he was pushing Naruto to the limits with the mastering of _Rasengan_. No, that was not only Rasengan, Jiraiya decided as he noticed few ripped apart trees and deep grooves in the ground.

"So, my godson, has some skills?" the Toad Sennin finally asked. "Or the Training Ground was demolished by you?"

"He has," Kakashi managed to say, almost spitting out those words. "He has chakra chains and once I convinced him to drop him, I'm stupid and loud act, he suddenly started to improve by leaps and bounds. He is as much of a son of the sensei as he is of Kushina. He has his flair, but has the energy of an Uzumaki."

"The chains will be an asset for him," Jiraiya said and frown, closing his eyes. "I don't know how much do you know about the clan. I was in the Uzushiogakure no Sato a couple of times between wars. I was learning the fuinjutsu and had a privilege to learns parts of their taijutsu. As well as an opportunity to fight against members of the clan with and without the chains."

"What can they do?"

"Things that can only be imagined. I've seen the chains pull people towards them, rip apart the earth, split lightning, change to different weapons, imbuded with elemental chakra fuuton and doton chakra chains suck! Tame bijuu, kill very effectively, deliver fuuinjutsu. Very versatile, beautiful and all deadly," Jiraiya said and looked at Kakashi. "Don't try to block any strike coming towards anything vital. Deflect it and evade, getting your block smashed aside and that tip buried in your chest is not the best idea."

Kakashi nodded and Jiraiya could see some relief in the eye of the jonin. Not that he was surprised. Getting pierced by a weapon that could rip apart when teaching your student was not a good thing. "We didn't include them in the spars, yet. He burns too much chakra using them."

"I know and I'm surprised he can use them so easily," Jiraiya said as he looked at the damage to the training ground. "Summoning them always was the easy part. The true challenge was turn them into a useful weapon and maneuver them."

"He can do that. He mostly rips trees out of the ground when practicing, but I tossed some shuriken and kunai for him to catch or stop."

Jiraiya nodded and considered his next words for the next few moments. "Do you think I should give him Summoning Contract now or should I wait?"

"Wait," Kakashi said. "He has too many things to master and I want him to be competent with some before he gets something more. I know that Gamabunta or Gamaken can help him. A lot. But he doesn't need them, yet and I have my hands full with him."

"I think I will stay in the village until you return from your trip to find Uchiha and Senju," Jiraiya said. "I have some research to do, informants to meet and a need to catch up with Shikaku and Ibiki. Once you are back I pass onto him the contract and go back to roam the world and find Tsunade."

"Tsunade-sama?"

"Aye," Jiraiya said with a grimace. "Sensei wants her home. I don't blame him, but I blame him for choosing me to do it. I wish he chose someone else to risk their life in service of Konoha, not his precious spymaster."

o-0-o

Sasuke stood on the training ground and watched Yamato-sensei. The jonin was an enigma to the last Uchiha, he popped out of nowhere and there was almost no mention of him in any of the Bingo books Sasuke could get his hands on. Which meant that either he was an incompetent idiot, which was not the case, especially considering his friendship with Kakashi-sensei.

Sasuke dimly remembered that Yamato mentioned that he was in ANBU, but the ANBU had something tangible left in their records. This one had nothing in his publicly available records and that made Sasuke irked. Irked more than the dobe that almost was an enigma and a puzzle he couldn't solve quite yet.

"Lack of information can be a painful thing," Yamato said and Sasuke looked at him. "I know what you try to find. It's not a hard thing to see or guess. If you impress me, by the time of the chunin exams I will give you some of the missing puzzles for your problems. Or tell you where to find them. Now, do you want to do some missions?"

Sasuke's eyes lit up at the word mission. "Yes!"

"Good." Yamato pulled out a thick scroll and a map of Konoha before placing them on the ground and pressing down corners with pieces of rock. "We have some reports of some gangs getting irritating and someone needs to cut them down."

"Why wouldn't ANBU do that?" Sasuke asked as he sat down and looked at the map. "Dirty work is their job. Not ours."

"Not exactly," Yamato said and then paused for few moments. "There are also reasons that I can't tell you about. Some of the ANBU are posted outside of the village and the rest is busy. A friend of mine asked me for a favor and since you need something to use your knowledge and skills..."

"I get it," Sasuke muttered, glaring at his sensei with his Sharingan glowing menacingly. "You think it is a good moment for me to prove that I can use my skills and think when doing so."

"More or less," Yamato said and opened the scroll before marking few things on the map. "Tell me, what do you know about those parts of Konoha?"

"Poorer and sparsely inhabited areas," Sasuke said and then bit his lower lisp. "Warehouses and granaries, mostly. From what I remember from the Academy there ought to be an armory or two hidden there."

"Yes," Yamato said and Sasuke looked at his jonin-sensei. "What do you think gangs would be doing there?"

"Trying to get their hands on the goods stored in those warehouses," Sasuke said and then frowned. An unpleasant sensation growing in the pit of his stomach. "They wouldn't be that brave to try to steal weapons from Konoha."

"Some are, some are not. Some enjoy or at least some think they enjoy protection of some higher ups." Sasuke could feel some cold hostility in the way Yamato-sensei was talking and he had a feeling this whole mission had an opportunity to go to hell. Even before it started. A thing he wasn't quite fond of, even that forsaken mission to Nami had less bad feelings about it. "The point is, they're not scared of ninja and should be some kind of resistance. Meeting of an actual ninja is extremely unlikely, but if it happens. I will step in and take him on."

"Am I supposed to enter and kill them?" Sasuke asked.

"Eventually, yes," Yamato said. "Now, I want you to think how can you scout out the area and do it unseen. You have for that a week, after that period and if what you found is satisfactory we will move. But for now you need to watch, listen and think."

"I can do it," the last Uchiha grunted. "I don't like it, but I can di it."

"When you advance to chunin and above this ability is more and more needed," Yamato commented. "If you don't have it, promotion above chunin is a questionable at best and impossible at the worst. Even your Kekkei Genkai and name won't matter here as in Konoha we don't care much about those that endanger their charges or teammates."

o-0-o

Sakura looked at Anko and frowned as she saw a pair of mission scrolls in the hands of her sensei. There was no mission she was supposed to go on, Sakura mused, unless Anko wanted her to prove what she learned and how much she developed since the start.

"Yes, those two are for you," Anko said without any introductions. "But not yet. First you need to understand how to use your looks, body and genjutsu to distract and then how to kill without leaving any evidence."

"What do you mean, Anko-sensei?"

"What I mean is that as a kunoichi some missions. Especially data gathering and assassination ones require that you use your charms as a means of gaining access somewhere, getting your target to do what you wish and to make them tell you all of their secrets," Anko explained without any formalities. "While for most of it you are too young, playing with genjutsu and simple looks is a thing you can do and you would be surprised how many of your male classmates would fall for it."

"How?" Sakura asked. "I know that hormones tend to make them dumber, but still. How? I'm not pretty and I'm a ninja like them."

Anko snorted and let out a sigh of annoyance. "Let's start with the how. Hormones make them notice something that attracts them and an unfortunate side-effect of our lifestyle is that most of us is always competing, always pushing their body to their limits and beyond and thus tends to be a little bit on the frustrated side. Which makes any idea of pleasure or what the more animalistic sides of our minds suggest very enticing and often we can't say no."

"Shouldn't they be aware of that?" Sakura asked. "If they know about it, they should know how to stay away from the traps that can come witb it."

Anko grinned at her and then looked at the nearby Forest of Death. "Yes and no," she finally said. "If they're like your friends Naruto or Sasuke they will be made acutely aware of watching out for strange offers. In general, clan heirs, families of Kages and high ranking officials know how to protect themselves and how to keep things hidden. If they're your normal civilian shinobi that has your average sensei, not really. Some learn it from some other ninja, from their lover or when they advance up the ranks. But until you are jonin or ANBU or chunin in some special division there usually is no need to know it."

"Shouldn't this be explained in the Academy?" Sakura asked and Anko only laughed.

"Good job explaining to kids such things. No, it is a thing any jonin that has a team should cover, but most don't. Those that were in ANBU do, those that are from the clans depends, the rest even more depends." Anko shrugged and then looked at Sakura. "As for looks. That's very subjective and you would be surprised how stupid some genin are. It is a female, is roughly their age. Yummy. That's their cognitive capabilities."

"That's not much."

"And there are genjutsu, clothes, makeups and quite a few concoctions that the ANBU developed," Anko said and grinned. "A block of shit could be made look desirable in their eyes. It would take a considerable amount of effort, but could be done." Anko paused and frowned, a malign look in her eyes. "Actually, girl, you gave me an idea to suggest to the proctors of the chunin exams."

"How?"

"You will see, if you take a part in it," Anko said and smirked. "Now, time for genjutsu. Show me your _Henge _and change into me."

Sakura nodded and after a second in her place stood a copy of Anko.

Anko approached Sakura and frowned as she looked at the _Henge_. Then she smacked Sakura and when the scared girl yelped and jumped back, _Henge_ disappearing. Anko tsked in annoyance. "Not good, girl," Anko commented. "You need to work on this. You don't want a stupid slap on the cheek or ass to dispel your _Henge_."

Sakura groaned and rubbed her pained cheek before once again transforming into Anko and trying to ignore the pain to come. One thing she learned from the training with the snake summoner was pain. Pain, suffering and even more pain. Kunai, poison, shuriken, snakes, kicks and punches smashing into ribs and other places that made Sakura shudder. She often had no time to get up after one kick before another punishing strike smashed into the same place.

o-0-o

Naruto was confused when Kakashi-sensei told him to pack for a week and be at the gates at seven in the morning. His confusion only grew larger when he saw Teams Eight and Ten also arrive there.

"Do you know what's going on?" he asked Shikamaru.

"No," the Nara boy said and yawned. "It's too early for anything of importance."

"Actually it isn't," Asuma-sensei said as he landed in front of them. Next to him Kakashi and Kurenai. "We just kept this whole thing a mystery and a secret because of the amount of spies that want to know about our sweet little plan."

"And you won't learn the details until we are an hour away from the village," the Hokage said as he joined them. He didn't wear his usual robes that gave him the sage-like appearance. No, he was dressed for a mission and a massive monkey way walking next to him. "That ape is a personal summon of mine, Enma, the Monkey King."

"I expected you to teach the youth better," Enma grumbled. "So that they would recognize me without you needing to introduce me."

**o-0-o**

**A/N – If you're wondering where Danzo is and why the advisors of the Hokage are also gone. They're simply hiding under the biggest rock in the area, hoping that they can muster courage to speak with him/danger goes away.**

**Reviews:**

_Mr guest _– there are reasons that I'm not fond of revealing, quite yet, and Yamato/Tenzo/Tora/Kinoe isn't an ANBU member right now. So he technically can more and he didn't exactly broke the rules. Naruto's heritage never really was a secret or the fact that Minato sealed Kyuubi in him. Kids weren't supposed to know, but they knew so what Yamato mostly did was confirm the thing that Sasuke could easily know on his own.

_happyguest _– not really. Temari is the first kid of the Kazekage and comes from a clan of Kazekage. While Shikamaru is a son of a clan head and a Hokage, a single one. Which vs Naruto's maternal heritage looks dim and his paternal blows Shikamaru's out of the water too.

It is a calculated risk with Sharingan and since it is first for politics, than for love. The Hokage who's the guy who has a good deck of cards now, can demand that another village offers someone with a Kekkei Genkai, too.

Uhm, do you really think Hinata has the courage and determination to approach Naruto? Especially now when he improves in terms of raw power faster than Sasuke. Sasuke still kicks his ass, but he also had the higher starting point so they're close to each other.

As for seduction as long as they got whatever what they wanted from the target the higher-ups won't inquire into how did it happen and genjutsu might be quite useful for her.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N – Shorter than usual, but I didn't want to make you wait two weeks or more for another chapter and this is a nice bit of plot moving forward.**

**o-0-o**

Naruto leaped from one branch to another, chakra allowing him to move much faster than any human of his age could move, yet even he struggled to keep up with the punishing pace set by the Hokage. He never expected Jiji to be so fit at such an old age.

"Naruto-kun," the Hokage said and Naruto looked in his direction. "If not for you, the genin, I would have ran much faster. There is no point in getting all of us scattered across the forest. That's an important leadership lesson for you, to choose the pace that suits all of the team and can be maintained by it."

"Why should I bother waiting for those that can keep up with me?" Kiba yelled as he started to move faster and get ahead of the group.

"Inuzuka, they never learn," Kakashi muttered. "They will burn their chakra system, but they will prove that they are superior to you."

"They're like dogs," Asuma commented, making Naruto look at the bearded jonin. "In short they want to be the alpha dog of a pack. Inside of the clan they usually end bruised and beaten close to death by someone higher up so they know their place. In our forces we usually don't begin training with grab by the balls and place a knife at the throat approach, so they are stupid."

"What a troublesome clan," Shikamaru moaned from somewhere behind, only to be whacked in the head by Ino.

"They're also incredibly useful," the Hokage said. "Their noses, ears and eyes are far keener than that of any ordinary ninja and their ninken companions are of great use for tracking, rescuing people and hunting down runaways. For all of their flaws they're a useful asset to Konoha and do things no other ninja could do."

"Why no other ninja could do it, Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked curiously as he grasped a nearby branch and used it to hurl himself further than he could otherwise. "Hyuuga can use their eyes for tracking and Aburame have their bugs."

"Indeed. But while eyes have a limited range, very limited range and kikaichu can be found. Smell and noise are much harder to obscure completely. Even if you have an extremely experienced ninja that knows they're chased, they will slip up. Sooner or later."

"And then the ninken and their masters can lead us to that location," Shikamaru said and yawned. "Or direct someone else into his rough location. Is that right, Hokage-sama?"

"Mostly. There is also third outcome that we might want to."

"Find out with whom they meet," Shikamaru said after few seconds of silence. "As some networks use a large amount of agents that know only their immediate contact and some location where they need to drop messages."

"Yes," the Hokage said and then stopped. "Kakashi, go fetch Kiba-kun. I think he stopped running." Kakashi nodded and disappeared. "Once they're back, I will explain to you why did I choose you and what's the goal of this mission. I'm aware that you know nothing, but I think that you all should have some suspicions."

"We have been running south," Shino said, Naruto finally remembering that the usually silent Aburame could speak. "Very fast at that. I think we have covered close to a hundred kilometers in the time since we left the village."

"There is nothing in the south," Naruto said as he remembered the geography. "No major cities, just forests and mountains and then the ocean."

"And the ruins of Uzushiogakure," the Hokage said and seeing Naruto's head jerk he looked at him. "No, we're not here to visit the home of your ancestors. I know that you want to visit it and if the time allows for it, you and Kakashi will be allowed to take a detour."

"He is a clanless orphan," Ino protested furiously. "How can he have a village and a clan to call his own."

"Ino," Asuma said, a clear edge to his voice. "Watch your words, especially here and now."

The heiress of Yamanaka clan scoffed and looked at her sensei, challenge in her eyes. "Why?"

"Because I'm also here," Naruto said as he glared at Ino, a challenge in his eyes.

"Both of you, back down," Enma, the Monkey King cut in as he dropped from a branch above them. "You are worse than the Sannin ever were."

Ino blushed at this before lowering her head in shame, while Naruto only kept glaring at her. His infamous or famous, depending on who was asked, Uzumaki temper not allowing him to back down. He was riled up and frustrated by the amount of training thrown at him, Ino's questions didn't make it any easier or better for him. After a couple of moments he took a deep breath and shook his head, finally managing to shove aside his anger.

"The Sannin lived in a different period," the Hokage said in a calm voice, a total opposite of Enma's angry one. "Yes, Naruto-kun is from a clan that used to have a village until the Third War when it was destroyed by the combined might of five other villages. All that is left now is are islands covered in ruins and haunted cities that are filled with traps and seals waiting for those foolish enough to venture there."

"Five villages?" Shikamaru asked, breaking the silence that fell over them. One nobody seemed willing to break. "What one clan could do to require such a force to destroy it?"

"Be as old and powerful as the Senju," the Hokage said. "And an ally of Konoha. Second War was a stalemate because of them. Before the Third War as the tensions grew the villages attacked Uzushio without any warning and we were unable to do nothing outside of strike at those that survived the battle."

Naruto was about to open his mouth when Kakashi with Kiba slung over his shoulder landed nearby. "One Inuzuka collected, Hokage-sama," the jonin said cheerfully. "He didn't run that much far away."

"Good. I think we stopped for enough time. Two more hours of such running and we should be able to find our targets," the Hokage said. "It is time for you to learn what's the purpose of this mission. It is to locate splinters of two clans that once were a part of Konoha, but died out or were killed, and convince them to join the village."

"What two clans, Hokage-sama?" Shino asked. "The only two clans that died out are Senju and Uchiha."

"There is also Kurama clan," Yuuhi Kurenai said. "But we are certain there are no members of it left. Their Kekkei Genkai is a curse for them and led to them being reduced to a couple of people living in Konoha."

"Yes, it is Senju and Uchiha," the Hokage said after a brief pause. "Senju first as they're easier to talk with and shouldn't use any genjutsu as that's not their favorite tool. They ought to listen to us and then toss some challenge at us and if we pass it, they will negotiate the actual deal."

"Do you actually expect them to want us to pass their challenge, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked. "From what I read, the Senju clan was more social than you portray them to be, Hokage-sama."

"Because they trusted Konoha and its people. Those know close to nothing about us and the Senju clan when faced with an outsider is similar to an Uchiha. Cold and calculating. They're compassionate and kind, but also cold, shrewd and calculating. Hashirama-sensei was the kind one, while his brother, Tobirama, was cold and calculating."

"So we need to hope that the leaders are in the kind and open mindset," Shikamaru muttered. "That can be troublesome and a drag."

"It would have been even bigger if we were ANBU," Kakashi commented and everybody looked at him. "There is a reason why I call you cute. I don't doubt that you can bite, hard. But compared to ANBU with their armors and masks you look cuddly and friendly."

"And that look is why I chose you over dozens of ANBU that would have happily replaced you on this mission," the Hokage said. "Kurenai, Asuma, cover the sides. Kakashi, you will cover the rear and carry Kiba."

o-0-o

Sasuke stood hidden in the branches of a massive oak tree next to a warehouse where his targets were supposed to be. He licked his lips as he placed his hand on the chokuto resting in a scabbard at his belt. He glanced at Yamato who stood nearby and saw the usually stoic jonin smile. "I'll watch your back," he said.

Sasuke nodded and once he made sure that the chokuto slid out of the scabbard easily he leaped down. The moment he landed he already saw two unpleasant looking and burly thugs move towards him.

"Get lost, kiddo," one of them said, a massive axe in his hands. "You have nothing to look for here."

Sasuke didn't bother that one with a look and walked forth.

"I told you something, kid!"

"I'm a ninja of Konoha," Sasuke finally said, his eyes becoming the menacing red and black of Sharingan. Yet he didn't need it to tell that one of the thugs moved behind him. "I suggest that you surrender, peacefully."

He didn't get anything, instead the one behind him, tried to grab him. Only for Sasuke to duck out of the way and pull out a chokuto, before driving it into the gut of the thug that tried to catch him. Sasuke grunted and yanked out the bloodied blade out of the wound, right in time to stop the massive axe coming towards his head.

Then everything slowed down and Sasuke saw the world in perfect clarity. He saw the opening and he leaped forward, shoving aside the axe and driving his chokuto into the neck of the second thug. As the blood gushed out of the wound Sasuke moved away and looked at the thugs. Both were incapacitated and one of them was dead.

"Let's see what you were guarding," he murmured as he approached the doors. He noticed Yamato drop from the tree and allowed himself a tiny smile at this. The jonin watching his back was useful, especially since they discovered some ninja helping this gang.

Sasuke knew that he should be able to take on any ninja that wasn't a skilled chunin or above, but he didn't want to test his luck. Especially not when he knew that Yamato-sensei would judge how well he would estimate the danger and decide to get support.

He kicked the door open and slipped inside. He didn't see anybody immediately, but the blueprints acquired by Yamato, Sasuke didn't inquire into how, suggested that there were some hidden parts of the buildings. If anywhere, it was there that would be most of his targets. He shook the chokuto and most of the blood covering it dropped onto the ground.

Keeping himself to the shadows he moved through the building. His steps far lighter and more careful than normally and one of his hands always gripping his chokuto. He checked the room where most of goods was stored and hissed when there was nobody present. He didn't expect any, but he wanted some combat. Those thugs were too easy of an opponent for him.

He stopped in front of a wooden wall that separated the official part of the warehouse from the part where more dark and not entirely legal operations were happening. He approached the door and reaching for a kunai he slowly pried them open.

The moment they moved with a groan that made Sasuke shudder in fear as he felt as if everybody in the whole world heard that noise. "They expected someone coming," Sasuke realized and moved away from the door when a katana cut through the soft wood and almost got him. He barely dodged the blade and it scared him far more than it should have had scared him.

He eyed the katana for a second and then kicked the door. Pumping into his feet more than necessary chakra. The blast of chakra smashed the door off its hinges and sent howling splinters of wood towards a surprised genin waiting for him on the other side.

"No, you won't get away!" Sasuke shouted as he threw the kunai he held and then followed it up with a pair of shuriken. The kunai smashed into the hand of the kid and pinned him against a crate, while the shuriken blocked his movement, pinning his pants to the wood.

"Good job, Sasuke," Yamato said, entering the room and looking at the genin. "Let's see what he knows that can help us."

o-0-o

Naruto landed behind the Hokage and looked at the cluster of the tents and shelters nestled around a hot spring. There were dozens of them and between them he could see men, women and children with the Senju sign on their clothes move.

"That's them," Kakashi said as he stood next to the Hokage. "The question is, where are their leaders."

The Hokage didn't say anything, instead moved forward, making Naruto wonder if he was insane. However it seemed to get some reaction from the Senju as a trio of old, almost ancient looking ninja in plate armors walked out of the camp and approached the Hokage.

"State your purpose," one in the middle. He was tall and stocky, a mane of black and gray hair flowing down his back. He looked like the leader of the whole clan with the

"I come to negotiate with you," the Hokage said. "I'm Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of the Konohagakure no Sato."

"I'm Senju Ryujin," said the Senju with the mane of black and gray hair. As Naruto looked more closely at him, he noticed a net of scars all over his face. Scars that could only be an effect of intense fighting. "I'm the leader of the clan. Whatever you have to tell to the clan, you can tell me."

"I come here asking that you join the village founded by your ancestors led by my teachers, Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama," the Hokage said.

"And what would we gain from that?" Ryujin asked roughly. "We are quite capable of living on our own and it feels like it is you who desperately wants us to join the village."

"Prosperity, peace, security and a safe home," the Hokage said, yet Naruto could tell that the Senju weren't impressed by it and seemed suspicious of what was going on.

"Hmph," Ryujin muttered and looked at one of the accompanying him shinobi. "There are perhaps some merits to it. But I am not certain that I can trust you. The times are dangerous and we want to be sure we can trust you."

"I understand. In the times of my sensei they used to use the challenge to test the trustworthiness of the envoy."

Ryujin's eyes lit up as he allowed a smile to appear on his face. "You know our customs," he said. "Good. Then let's see what you can show for yourself, Konoha-nin. Us, leaders fighting would be a bit of an overkill." Ryujin's gaze swept across the whole group and stopped on Naruto. "One of your cubs and one of mine?"

The Hokage nodded and looked then at Naruto who just smiled. "Uzumaki Naruto, you will represent the village."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Ryujin gave Naruto and arched an eyebrow. "He is an Uzumaki, yet he doesn't look like one."

"His paternal genes were strong," the Hokage said with a shrug. "He has their chakra capacity and other quirks, just not the eyes and hair."

"We will see," Ryujin said and glanced back at the crowd of Senju. "Sanga, show this cub that Senju can fight."

"Hai, tou-san," said a girl with piercing red eyes, flowing brown hair and a skin the color of copper. She was dressed in clothes that made certain urges awaken in Naruto, but a look at a naginata she carried made them go away.

"To the first blood," the Hokage said and Ryujin only confirmed with a nod. "One that walks out is the winner."

Naruto walked towards Sanga and pulled a kunai out of the holster on his leg before looking at her. "Let's get done with it, Sanga-chan."

She only grinned at him and gripped her naginata more firmly. "Of course," she said with a predator like purr. "You seem a good opponent."

Naruto grinned and tossed at her his kunai. His hands already flashing through the handseals for one of the jutsu he recently learned. "_Kage Kunai Bunshin no Jutsu_," Naruto muttered and the single kunai turned into few dozens.

Sanga jumped out of the way and flashed through the handseals. Naruto didn't manage to hear the name of the jutsu, but the thin stream of water shooting out of her mouth banished his doubts.

"Damn," he muttered, running away as that stream of water chased him. He came to a halt and made the cross-like seal. "_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_!"

Two clones popped behind Naruto and started to form two balls of chakra above his palms. When the balls of chakra were fully created Naruto raced towards Sanga and barely dodged the next stream of water that should have hit him.

Then he was upon her and he drove the Rasengan towards her. Only for her to use _Kawarimi _and get out of the trap. He heard the shuriken flying towards his back and he only had a second to do the same thing she did.

o-0-o

"What is that jutsu used by Naruto?" Shikamaru asked as he yawned. "That is not a jutsu a genin like me can master or use."

The Hokage at this chuckled and Shikamaru looked at the aged leader. "It is not a usual jutsu, in Konoha there are just three people that can use it. I, Kakashi and Gama Sennin Jiraiya."

"It was developed by my sensei," Kakashi said quietly. "It is called _Rasengan _and is a powerful jutsu if used correctly."

"So Naruto wanted to end the fight with a single attack?" Shikamaru mused. "I don't blame him. That girl is scary, but that is rash and stupid."

"It isn't as stupid and rash as it looks to be," the Hokage said and everybody looked at him. "Yes, you shouldn't do it under normal circumstances. But here all he needs is a simple cut and the fight is over."

"He has an ace up his sleeve," Kakashi added. "One I struggle to counter, so he can use it against her. He shouldn't do it as it costs him a lot, but he can."

o-0-o

Naruto spit onto the ground and looked around. His eyes trying to find Sanga as he toyed with one of his kunai. He glanced to the side and saw the crowd of onlookers only grow and the pressure on Sanga to do something was also growing. She needed to something, fast, and they both knew that.

The pressure from the onlookers on Sanga was both a blessing and a curse for Naruto. A curse, because she could do something so unpredictable and stupid that he didn't have a chance of even guessing what she would do. A blessing because she needed to be more rash and less careful, a thing that Naruto felt like he could exploit to his benefit.

He glanced at the nearby stream and backed away. She was a Suiton user and those needed some kind of a water source to do any fancier jutsu without exhausting themselves. He placed his back against a massive oak and barely he did it a naginata almost severed his head from the rest of his body.

Sanga dropped from above and Naruto pulled out a kunai before using it to stop the blade. "I wondered when you will strike," he said and with his second hand he reached for the shaft of the polearm. "And thank you for doing this."

Naruto grinned and headbutted her. At the same time grabbing the naginata out of Sanga's hands. He pulled it away from her reach and tossed the deadly weapon aside.

"You're a mean fox," Sanga whined as she reached for a kunai. "Tossing away my naginata."

Naruto grinned and pounced onto her, his kunai slashing towards her face. She rolled backwards and flashed through a chain of handseals. A stream of water shooting out of her mouth and smashing into Naruto, tossing him back.

He groaned and got up before charging at her. A kunai in his hand shining with the Fuuton chakra. He sent a wild slash at Sanga, one she rolled out of the way of before sending another stream of water at him.

"You really love Suiton, don't you?" Naruto asked with a smirk as he started to go through the handseals.

"What can I say? It's a handy nature of chakra," Sanga said and smirked. "And is an excellent conduit for electricity."

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized what she meant. He finished his jutsu. "Fuuton – Renkuudan!"

He spat out a dozen of balls of air that howled towards Sanga, easily tearing through some Suiton jutsu she tried to use. However when they smashed into her, she became water.

"I'm here, foxy," Sanga purred as she appeared behind him. A kunai in her hand and nearing his neck. "Surrender or die."

"I don't think so," Naruto said and ducked under her arm and then chains shot out of his hands. He looked at Sanga and the chakra chains wrapped around her. She didn't have a moment to run away. The restrains were too strong for her and her struggles meant nothing for the chakra that didn't want to break or even bend.

"What the fuck are those?" she yelled as she smashed her fist against them.

"Kongo Fusa," Naruto said with a smile as he walked towards her struggling form. "A Kekkei Genkai of my clan. A very handy tool to catch shinobi I don't want to kill. Won't you agree?"

"They're certainly strong," Sanga said as she gritted her teeth and smashed her fist against the links formed out of chakra. "And don't break."

Naruto smiled and gently pressed a kunai against her throat. "Surrender."

"I give up," Sanga said and stopped struggling against the chains.

Naruto smiled and summoned back the chains. Almost dropping to the ground as a massive wave of nausea and exhaustion hit him. It felt less horrible than before, but he also burned a lot of the chakra simply running here. A thing that could have put more strain on his body than he anticipated or was able to predict.

o-0-o

Sasuke smashed the handle of his kunai against genin's head and when boy's head slumped forward the last Uchiha looked at Yamato. "What he told us is pretty useless," the jonin commented. "Most of it you or I could discover on our own."

"There needs to be something useful," Sasuke countered.

"There ought to be," Yamato corrected him. "But unfortunately this genin didn't tell us much useful. It can happen with some informants and not many prisoners are that talkative as this one." Yamato at this smiled. "He knows he is in deep troubles and he hoped that by being talkative he can buy himself a way to freedom and save his career."

"Can he?"

"Not really," Yamato said and then spun around, grasped a second genin that was about to drop onto him and smashed his head against the concrete floor. "But they think so. So they do it. And it has a chance of sparing them from death, not a small one, too."

Sasuke nodded and scanned the space around them. Looking for any more hiding attackers, seeing none he looked at one that laid on the floor. "He came from the above," the last Uchiha said and looked at the walls. "A hidden passage or he was there all that time."

"Not many genin have the patience or chakra control to stick to a wall and don't get noticed by your Sharingan," Yamato commented. "Yes, you can see chakra of a person, but there are ways to hide it and the ambient chakra can hide you. But no genin knows that skill and even not that many chunin have it as it is mostly a specialty of the ANBU and jonin."

"So a secret passage that the plans lack and a maze below us." Sasuke tsked in annoyance as he slid his chokuto into its scabbard. "We can split up or clear out the part above and then the maze below."

"Both of them are a good option," Yamato commented. "But it is you who is in command. Not me."

"We will clean the corridors above us and then the underground part."

Yamato nodded and Sasuke could feel some approval radiate off the jonin, hopefully a sign that Sasuke just earned a couple of points and made Yamato less of a pain in the ass.

o-0-o

Ryujin caressed a cup of tea and sipped it slowly as he looked at the Hokage and two of his jonin seated across the spacious tent. Even if the clan was forced to become nomadic when they lost the track of Hashirama-sama it still had its dignity and power and some of its riches which allowed a rather comfortable life.

"Hokage-dono," Ryujin said and looked at the two jonin. The bearded one was somewhat related to the Hokage and the silver-haired one had a Sharingan implanted in that eye under the hitai-ate. Most curious, Ryujin mused and allowed himself a smile. "Your cub knows how to fight and has some potential."

"Indeed, he does," the Hokage said and smiled warmly. "As does your. I'm impressed that she managed to stall Naruto-kun for so long. He is one of our most promising ninja of his generation."

"As is Sanga for us." Ryujin smiled and sipped more of his tea before allowing himself a warmer smile. "Hokage-dono I'm willing to listen to what you have to offer and you may attempt to convince me that I should join the village."

For the next almost half an hour Ryujin sipped his tea slowly as he heard the tale about Konoha, its importance, power, glory and the fact that he should join the village founded by his ancestors. It was a very interesting tale he was willing to listen to, yet he knew that he could get much more than the Hokage was suggesting in his pretty tale.

"Hokage-dono. The tale is... most fascinating and it was a pleasure to listen to it. However, since I am a leader of a clan and it is my responsibility to guide it well. I won't fall for a trap of listening to honeyed words that can be full of lies and half-truths. We, shinobi, are proficient at both and perhaps for once we speak candidly."

"Ryujin-dono," the Hokage said. "Very well. The honesty of words and actions perhaps is the best way to convince you. The Senju are one of the founding clans of Konoha and they used to be the sentinels of peace and prosperity for the whole country the village swore to protect. It came with respect and prestige for both clan and the village and now your name is almost forgotten by the world, unheard of even."

"And you assume that our return would allow you to rebuild village's prestige and standing?"

"In the long run, yes. But I also care about the well-being of every ninja under my command and those living in Hi no Kuni. I want the village and clans to flourish and develop. A thing that can happen only through cooperation and if we work with each other."

Ryujin arched an eyebrow at that last phrase. It sounded a lot like some of his clan teachings, a thing he didn't expect. "So, if we return to the village, can we expect the same treatment as the Senju were given when they lived in the village?"

"Once we are sure that we can trust you, then yes. Initially of course we will need to be careful and have a modicum of mistrust for you."

"You wouldn't trust the clan that founded the village?"

"Considering that the second was staging a coup against me?" The Hokage asked and shook his head. "I'm a generous man and one that gives people trust, but I am not one to not expect the same thing in return. Allies, even the closest of my allies wanted to plot my demise on more than one occasion. With all due respect, Ryujin-dono, I need some token of trust on your part to be more trusting."

"An honest and even blunt answer," Ryujin said and then paused for few moments. "What is a thing that you would expect as a token of trust?"

"Perhaps ten of your most experienced shinobi willing to train our upcoming generations of shinobi. We have a tradition that each of the jonin takes on a team of three genin and tutors them and later becomes a captain of the team."

"An interesting idea," Ryujin said and mused. "I would need to consult with the elders of the clan, but it is a thing we appreciate and would be willing to participate in."

"That's excellent," the Hokage said and then shifted. "However if you are to join the village all of your shinobi would need to be integrated into our forces and possibly undergo the same examination procedures as our normal shinobi pass."

"No," Ryujin said and the Hokage looked at him. "We will join, but you won't make us undergo the exams your shinobi pass. Those of ours that started their training recently, will undergo them. The rest, never."

"We need to gauge your potential and see what you can do-"

"And we will be more than willing to demonstrate that. However none of the shinobi that finished their training will be put through those exams," Ryujin said and bared his teeth. "The more is unknown about us, the better for the village. Don't you think, Hokage-dono?"

"He is right," the silver-haired, named Kakashi muttered. "Most people will approach the whole problem very carefully, unless they know what they're dealing with."

The Hokage nodded and was silent for several long moments before speaking once again. "That can be accepted," the Hokage said quietly. "There is this tiny matter of the Senju clan swearing the loyalty to the village and the reigning Hokage."

"We will do that when we think that living in Konohagakure no Sato is a beneficial thing for us. Until then you won't force any such an oath out of me or any other member of the clan. We will of course follow orders and obey the laws of the village, however, for the time being we won't make any binding oaths."

"I know that I won't get anything more out of you. You will need to see me act as a ruler to see if you are going to stay or not, don't you?"

"Possibly," Ryujin said. "Naruto is an Uzumaki and he fight like one. Perhaps there is some hope for you after all."

The Hokage jerked, his self-control slipping for the first time and making Ryujin allow himself a tiny smirk. He was curious how much would it take to unsettle the old monkey and he was a bit impressed. He wanted some more so that he could keep playing the mind games, but this was so far enough.

The future would tell and show more. As of now he was willing to join the Konoha and the rest of the clan would hear his words. The fact that the rest of the clan wanted a sense of stability and safety didn't have anything to affect his decision making.

o-0-o

Yuuhi Kurenai sighed as she looked at the genin. The questions about Naruto's Kekkei Genkai were an impossible thing to avoid now and she didn't really want to bring up his parentage and anything more than the bare minimum. At least that kid had enough sensitivity to disappear out of sight as soon as the duel was over.

The Senju were strangers, but strangers she knew wouldn't turn upon them. Especially not now and she much more preferred Naruto with that Sanga than here and making the rest of the group ask even more uncomfortable questions.

"Sensei, what are those chains?" Shino asked. "Kongo Fusa is not a name I can recognize."

"They're a unique Kekkei Genkai of the Uzumaki clan. Beyond that little is known and most of the records is in the ruins of Uzushio, in Konoha we know little of them. However what you saw is I think a more than convincing example of how dangerous they can be."

"Kurenai-sensei, why did Naruto never reveal that he belongs to a clan?" Ino asked and Kurenai internally cringed at that. Yamanaka were good at gossips and finding very uncomfortable questions to ask.

"I know, yet I'm not allowed to answer that question."

"Why?"

"Because of the reasons above my pay grade," Kurenai stated and she almost winced when Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. Yet that was enough to shut up Ino, for now at least. Shikamaru was savvy enough to find what he sought through more subtle means and without getting people irked or drawing attention. Ino lacked those skills and as a Yamanaka she couldn't keep her mouth shut at times, making it a risk to trust her with much data.

"You can wander around as much as you want," Kurenai said and seeing Kiba perk up as he finally woke up from his slumber she reached and grasped him by the hood of his jacket. "Not you. You will instead stay here and explain to me why what you did was a stupid idea."

"But-" the young Inuzuka started.

"Nothing," Kurenai said as she smiled coldly. "Oh, Tsume-sama might have receive a very detailed account of your behavior and skills. Written by Hokage-sama himself."

"I'm screwed," the Inuzuka whined as he paled.

o-0-o

Sasuke dropped to the floor, avoiding a storm of kunai and shuriken, before getting up and crossing the limited distance between him and the another of the ninja that shouldn't have been here. He easily allowed the sloppy punch of the kid and then smashed his foot into genin's gut before grasping the head and smashing a knee against kid's face.

"One more down," Sasuke murmured as he looked at the unconscious genin on the floor.

"Those should be all," Yamato commented and Sasuke glanced backwards at his sensei who casually smasked another genin into a wall. "But it makes me wonder who put such substantial resources into protecting this place. I know about it only because of my friends in the ANBU."

"ANBU?" Sasuke asked, wondering aloud.

"No," Yamato said, shaking his head. "Too sloppy even for the rookies and not many would work without a mask. Unless forced to."

"Yet they wear Konoha hitai-ate," Sasuke pointed out. "That rather limits the pool of suspects quite drastically."

"Which isn't necessarily true. Yes, it is a crime to wear a hitai-ate if you are not a ninja, but inside of Konoha there are so many ninja and clans and families that we don't bother enforcing that law and an average smith will make you a decent copy."

"So who?"

"Possibly some foreign force," Yamato said and shrugged. "Or some internal force that wants to stir troubles. If you want, there is enough evidence to pull back, call ANBU and let them sort it out."

"No!" Sasuke's voice sounded more forceful than he wanted it to sound. "I want to finish this mission."

"As you wish," Yamato said with a bow of his head.

**o-0-o**

**A/N – Several bits are missing from this chapter due to me wanting to push it before Friday and the next few thousand words will take a lot more planning than this bit so I want this bit out while I take my sweet time musing on things. And 200 favorites made me push it a bit sooner.**

**Sasuke is onto something, Yamato knows what it is, but can't tell because his head would roll if he mentioned for whom those ninja were working. Enough is said that Ibiki is very keenly watching them and might have sent Sasuke to act as a bait...**

**Naruto will get more attention in the next chapter. In his duel he was extremely, extremely lucky as Sanga was mostly toying with him and if she wanted to, she could easily kick his ass or rather fry him – water + electricity + human body = one fried human body. Why is she calling him foxy, that's a mystery, but teasing is fun. **

**Sakura will return in the next chapter and maybe finally do some action. Boys were doing most until now, but she also started at the lowest point of all three of them so she needed the most time.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N – Another chapter and a short one, but I don't have much time to spare on writing now and that's the state of affairs until middle of June. Internship, working on my thesis, managing one website and few more things take most of my time and then in August I'm going to Italy for six weeks which complicates things even more for me. Updates will be erratic and based on when I can actually get an opportunity to write and don't feel like crawling into bed and sleeping for however long I can.**

**As a friendly reminder, messages asking me when I'll publish next chapter will land in a trash can and I won't bother answering them. I write because I want and can, not because I need to do it. **

**o-0-o**

Jiraiya stretched in the chair and looked across his sensei' office. The office of the Hokage managed to accumulate quite a large collection of various doodads left by the previous leaders of the village. It was also probably the most secure room in the whole village, outside of the pits of the T&I, but that place was special.

"Jiraiya-sama," Shikaku said.

"Yes?" The Gama Sennin asked, not even diverting his gaze from the manuscript of the next part of Icha Icha.

"One of our friends from Suna sent a message."

"What kind of a message?" Jiraiya asked as he put away that manuscript.

"That a pale and dark-haired man was seen inside of the village," Shikaku said and shifted. "He was supposed to meet with the Kazekage and the meeting was without anybody else."

"They mean business then," Jiraiya said and grimaced. "Or they don't want us to find out about it." He looked at the scarred jonin and then at the portraits of the Kage. "What do we know about their financial situation?"

"They lost another ten million in the contracts from the Daimyo," Shikaku said as he closed his eyes for a second. "Further five they should lose within another month."

"And they never were rich. They had the money to function, but barely and now they're lacking what? Twenty million?"

"Twenty for their usual force level, thirty if they want to mobilize the reserves."

Jiraiya sighed and rubbed his eyes as he thought over those numbers. "Twenty million per month will make them desperate around the time of the chunin exams. They will have little money to promote their rising starts, arrange meetings with the nobles and daimyos."

"Which will hurt them even more in the long run," Shikaku said with a wince. "We could help them arrange those meetings."

"No," Jiraiya said and the jonin commander looked at him. "We won't help them, especially not when we know that they plot with Orochimaru or someone who looks damn close to that snake. Reinforce the patrol along our western border and keep less experienced teams away from Kaze no Kuni. They shouldn't do something as stupid as attack our teams on missions there…"

"But if they're lacking funding some might try to get lucky and collect bounties," Shikaku finished. "More stupid things happened in the past and if they're as desperate as we think they are."

"Yes, they will do even more stupid things," Jiraiya said and shook his head in irritation. "Sensei wants me here to keep an eye on the warhawk, even if there are more pressing issues."

"Like?"

"Yagura," Jiraiya said and smiled at the widened eyes of Shikaku. "He was killed by Terumi Mei, well, that's her official story and while she's capable of defeating him. I don't think he was killed by her. Jinchuuriki are much tougher than many assume they are. Take for example Naruto or Kushina, they have more chakra than the ruling Hokage and are nigh on impossible to kill. I don't think that much outside of the beheading or severe damage to the brain is able of killing them."

"Bijuu don't want to spend ages recreating their bodies," Shikaku said with a frown. "If Yagura was close to defeat his Bijuu would give him all the power he could need just to survive and not be scattered."

"Bingo."

Shikaku got up from his place and walked to the window. "There is nothing in our bingo books suggesting that the Godaime Mizukage has the necessary knowledge of sealing to keep Bijuu out of the fight nor she knows how to fight one."

"The seal that makes bijuu's chakra unable to be accessed is relatively simple and anybody can learn it. The biggest issue is finding where is the actual seal holding the Bijuu and laying it on top of that seal," Jiraiya said and looked at Shikaku. "Take as an example Naruto, he has that seal on his belly as that's the standard Uzumaki seal and close to several major chakra coils. But we know that because we have seen the seal and know the style used by Minato. Tell me, can any random seal master guess where the seal is?"

"If they're insanely lucky," Shikaku said and laughed. "No, they cannot."

"Exactly," Jiraiya said and turned to look at the village. "Each of the villages protects this as much as they can. And Mei wasn't high enough nor she had any need to know it, so she would need to fight him and Sanbi."

"Or someone eliminated him and she just claimed that she won a duel with him," Shikaku said. "From what we know the Akatsuki has some sick fascination of those beasts."

"They have. But why? Even Karasu isn't particularly talkative about why. He reports on them and we know the rough composition of the group. But why not really."

"Can we slip in a second agent?"

Jiraiya snorted at this. "Yes, we can. Find me some clan that would be willing to organize a coup and someone to slaughter them for carrying out said coup. Itachi was both a curse and a blessing for the village and while we both know that we could have found someone to do it. The cost would be too high. Especially now."

"And eliminating them will be a problem," Shikaku said. "Hidan or Kakuzu are from what we know impossible to kill. Akasuna no Sasori is a puppet master that uses poisons and puppets that are above the ones used by Suna and Hoshigaki Kisame isn't much easier to beat."

"There are also few that I am unable to pin down," Jiraiya added as he pulled out a small book. "We know that there are ten of them. We know of five of them. Anything beyond that is a mystery and nobody likes admitting that some of their shinobi belong to an organization that is a pain in the butt."

"Didn't Orochimaru belong to it?"

"He did. Right before Itachi joined it. After that he forged his own path," Jiraiya said and smiled. "This is actually a decent idea. I would need to get several squads of ANBU. More than that platoon you have watching our friend's hideouts and something to lure him elsewhere. But it has merits."

"You want to raid his hideout and force him to fight you?"

"No, I doubt that even I and Tsunade could kill him and capturing him is beyond reckless." Jiraiya shook his head. "What I want to do is to raid his hideouts and check his research. He is twisted and warped, but meticulous and that might give us some insight."

"I could find few more squads and send them there," Shikaku said with a frown. "It's not that their services are needed."

"Have them sweep the country for any gangs that we know work with other villages," Jiraiya said and then looked at the manuscript of his novel. "Pardon me, Shikaku, but people won't wait for much longer for the next book of the series."

o-0-o

"You know that you got lucky there?" Sanga asked as she and Naruto sat on one of the tree branches and out of the view of Konoha genin. "I could have kill you if I wanted."

"Could doesn't mean you would succeed," Naruto pointed out with a friendly smile. "And I guess that you wanted to use that water to get me wet and then use Raiton to finish it."

Sanga only chuckled and gave him an inquisitive look. "Most boys your age doesn't notice that trap."

"My sensei happily does very sadistic things to prove to me that danger can come in a very strange form," Naruto said and then paused. "Why did you call me foxy?" he asked after few moments of an awkward silence.

"I am a sensor," Sanga quietly said. "Yes, if I focus enough I can sense that ball of hatred inside of you. Frankly, anybody with any kind of a talent for sensing chakra and a bit of common sense could guess the cause. And I know a bit about the history of my clan and yours."

Naruto's head jerked uncontrollably and his eyes widened. Finding anything useful on the history of his clan inside of Konoha was a pain and the things he was given by the Hokage didn't give him that much in terms of actual information and facts. It was a nice thing to read about customs and culture, but he also wanted the history.

"Yes," Sanga said and placed her hand on his shoulder, making him shift uneasily. "Hashirama-sama married an Uzumaki woman by the name of Mito. Who sealed into herself Kyuubi no Yoko and thus she became what you call a jinchuuriki. You being another doesn't surprise me much. Hashirama-sama was said to subdue all nine of them."

"Jinchuuriki?" Naruto repeated, tasting the word. "What is it?"

"Human sacrifice," Sanga said with a strange, faraway expression. "A human babe is used to seal one of the bijuu into it." She sighed and looked at Naruto. "I know the bare minimum because we ran into one not so long ago and hiding the fact that he was one was pointless. So Tou-san, Ryujin-sama for you, taught me about it and how to recognize one when I sense them. If you want to learn more, ask your sensei or your leader, the Hokage."

"I will," Naruto said and shook his head. "Just hard to understand for me. Well, understand and accept."

Sanga chuckled and Naruto arched an eyebrow in confusion. "You're less annoying than my twin brother," she said. "And smarter, not a thing I expected. But honestly, you will be fine and if I'm right about what Tou-san is planning, we will be joining Konoha. Not on the terms the Hokage will like, just in ours."

"That's nice."

"I bet you will be whining when I kick your ass," someone said and Naruto slowly turned. Just to see someone that looked like a copy of Sanga, just in a male body. Same brown hair and red eyes, even the same confident smirk that Sanga had.

"Raiden, I wondered where you were," Sanga murmured in a way that made Naruto arch his eyebrow in an unasked question. "He is my twin brother, younger brother as a matter of fact."

"And the more talented one," Raiden countered with a smirk. "Admin it, sis, I can kick your ass."

"Only when I let you," Sanga said, a bright smile on her face. "But now, be a nicer guy than this."

"Or what?"

"Tou-san might be unhappy," Sanga said with a smirk as Raiden's expression quickly changed. "I thought that you recognize Naruto as the one I fought during that challenge."

Raiden paled and sat down on the branch. None of his confidence and happiness on his face. "I didn't watch the challenge," he said with an embarrassed smile. "I was too busy with more pleasant things."

"Is he always like that?" Naruto asked.

"Showing off, immature, irritating and annoying?" Sanga asked and Naruto only nodded. "Yep, he's my brother and seems he inherited the worse part of the genes. I don't understand how we are related to each other. Sometimes I wish he was not a brother of mine."

"He's a lot like a friend of mine," Naruto said and frowned. "He's just more brooding and sulking, not immature."

"Are there any normal and not irritating ninja out there?" Sanga asked with a groan. "We're all a strange bunch of people and I can't find anybody that's normal."

"Neither can I," Naruto said and groaned. "Do you have anything more comfortable than this branch?"

"Raiden, show him," Sanga said and disappeared in a _shunshin._

"Show what?"

"Hot springs where you can laze around and tell me how did you beat my sister," Raiden said.

o-0-o

Sasuke parried a kunai coming towards his face and then let Yamato pass him. The jonin moving forward and easily catching another ninja off-guard. Making the Uchiha only smirk at another corpse on the ground. This one with a kunai thrust between their ribs and towards their heart.

"That's more resistance than I expected," Yamato commented and Sasuke only nodded. Too numb from everything he saw and did to talk. The underground maze was a dark and gloomy place, filled with things that made his stomach turn, wondering how sick someone who owned this place was.

"Do you have an idea who owns this place, sensei?" Sasuke asked as he summoned a small ball of flames and kept above his palm to illuminate the corridor ahead of them.

"It's either Shimura Danzo or Orochimaru," Yamato said. "I wouldn't tell you normally, but considering what we saw. It doesn't matter now. Whether you know it or not is the least of your worries."

Sasuke grunted, his chokuto flashing and slicing in half through a weak Fuuton jutsu. He then stepped forward and thrust. The blade sunk into the darkness ahead and dug into the body of the attacker. He pulled it upwards and then with a twist pulled out, body falling in its wake.

Another kid, their face covered by a featureless mask that didn't reveal anything. He stepped over it and stopped attack of the another fake ANBU, right as Yamato moved forward and killed them. A flash of chakra flew through the ceiling, lightning up dozens of kanji and then Sasuke's eyes widened as he recognized a familiar pattern. A pattern used when making explosives using chakra, this one was just on a much bigger scale and much stronger.

"It's a trap!" he yelled, turning around and running towards the entrance into the maze.

o-0-o

Anko smiled widely as she entered a building that on the outside looked as if it was about to collapse and was a ruin. Yet in Konoha many buildings looked as such, mainly to keep curious eyes away and allow the occupants of them some kind of peace and secrecy.

"Why are we here, sensei?" Sakura asked as she looked around with widened eyes.

"Because some things the ninja use are hidden from the eyes of the normal people," Anko said with a shrug and shoved open door ahead of her. "And because sometimes we want to have the peace and calm while we discuss our plans. In this case the latter."

Sakura dumbly nodded and followed Anko into dimly lit room clouded in the tobacco smoke. As she passed through the door an invisible force almost threw her out of the room. The stench of the tobacco was so strong. "Eww," the pink haired kunoichi said. "It stinks."

"And keeps curious people out," Anko said as she walked to one of the empty tables in the far corner of the room. "Sit down, pinky." Sakura obeyed and Anko smiled, placing two scrolls on the table between them. "Those two contain information about missions for you. A friend of mine wants those two people gone. He doesn't inquire into how they're gone. They just need to be gone."

"Sensei?"

"Yes, Sakura?"

"What do you mean as gone?"

"Dead," Anko said bluntly. "Ideally in a way that looks like an accident or something that can't be traced back to you. Or at least can make you look as if you acted in self-defense."

"Why?" Sakura asked. "Why can't I simply poison them and be done with it?"

"Because they are also ninja of Konohagakure no Sato and killing them so openly would be a murder," Anko said and sighed. "If you murdered a civilian we would have the investigation end with no conclusion or toss someone else in your place. With ninja, that won't fly because too many people that have power will demand answers and even if ANBU who are the ones that carry out such investigations don't like being forced. They still need to obey those commands from higher ups. Politics in our village are a mess and a chance that someone will want answers is too high to risk. Can I pull you out of a mess if you screw up? Yes, but the cost will be high and if I can I want to avoid it."

"ANBU carries out investigations related to shinobi?" Sakura asked with a frown on her face. "We were taught it was Military Police."

"All of which lies in its graves," Anko said with a roll of her eyes. "Since the Uchiha clan was killed it is a duty of ANBU to carry out all of such investigations. We are working on starting new police force, but for now it is ANBU that does it. Anyways, what do you remember from what I taught you about espionage, assassination and illusions?"

"That the best way for me would be to use genjutsu and make them want to drag me somewhere secluded," Sakura said and swallowed. "Me say smothering them with a pillow or something in an attempt to defend myself will look clean and nice for the higher ups."

"Indeed," Anko said and smiled. "There are some fast acting and very useful poisons I will give you. But the approach with self-defense is the safest one for me and I will be watching you so I can step in when things get out of hand and kill them."

"I understand," Sakura said and swallowed. "When I was enrolled I never expected that I would need to do so much killing, stealing and murdering people when they don't have any warning."

"Well, then you clearly aren't an ANBU candidate," Anko said and reached for sake that appeared within her reach. "We do everything the Kage isn't proud of, murder traitors, trigger wars and so on." Seeing Sakura's expression of shock and confusion Anko only laughed. "Yes, we do things you never find mentioned in the books. The reports that are for the jonin to see are often censored to hide what we did before they could be allowed to act."

"Aren't we supposed to do what the nobles don't want to admit doing?" Sakura asked, her face almost ashen.

"Yes and no," Anko said and took a small sip of the alcohol. Enjoying its burning taste. "You see, there are things that need to be done. But at the same time nobody can known how did they happen. The ANBU are the only part of our forces that stays almost completely off the records and is pretending to be invisible."

Sakura sat there silently for several long moments. Her mind incapable of comprehending what her sensei was telling her.

"Yes, you and most of genin is aware that the ANBU exists," Anko said and sighed. "But for the average civilian and even most of the richer nobles we are a rumor. A scary rumor that's like a Sannin, everybody heard about it, everybody knows it's there, but not many saw it. Yet at the same time hushed whispers of their presence can soothe a lot of troubles before they grow. Nobody wants to lose their heads or have their dirty secrets revealed to the public."

"Are the gossips that dangerous for the nobles?" Sakura asked with a mean glean to her eyes.

"Oh, yes," Anko grinned. "I guess you should get a lesson in them and how deadly they can be for nobles…"

o-0-o

Ibiki climbed to the top of the walls surrounding Konoha and looked off into the distance. A pillar of smoke was rising from one of the less expensive districts, not a thing that was uncommon, but usually he knew ahead of time of any fires there. "Do we know what exactly happened there?"

"Uchiha Sasuke went there with his sensei," one of the ANBU said and Ibiki's eyes narrowed into a pair of slits. "No, it wasn't Kakashi-senpai, but Yamato."

"Which isn't that much better." A grunt left Ibiki's mouth as he tried to remember who exactly had their foxhole there. "Have a squad investigate, dig out any survivors, terminate hostile ones and get Sasuke and Yamato to the hospital."

The ANBU nodded and disappeared, leaving Ibiki with the growing headache of explaining this thing to Shikaku and Jiraiya-sama. Especially Jiraiya-sama. Gama Sennin was not a person that would buy lies and probably would be unhappy that something like this wasn't found and disarmed. A thing Ibiki wasn't too pleased about either and he felt like he needed to have a talk with the people that should have found this thing long ago.

There were two, no, three possible reasons why this slipped his attention and none of the reports about it ever reached him or was even made. One, it was deemed abandoned and slated for disarming the traps and securing the evidence when one of the teams was free. Two, it was undetected, which meant someone would now pay with their head. Three, it was supposedly one of the ANBU bases he didn't know about and someone appropriated it for their use. Last one was the least probable, but in the byzantine and dark world of the ninja stranger things happened. Him not being able to know that there was this base, well, now formed base. Wouldn't be the strangest of things that ever happened.

It being undetected was a worrying thing that meant that someone, somewhere screwed up or intentionally made it undetected. First was bad, but a thing that happened and would continue to happen. For all their training, the ANBU were humans and did mistakes. He could understand that and tolerate as they would learn from his ire and that of those higher in the food chain of how much did they screw up. If it was the second option, he didn't want to be that poor soul once he could get his hands on whoever it was and make them confess who bribed them to do it.

"Now let's hope that Jiraiya-sama is in the listening mood," Ibiki said and leaped off the wall and down towards the roofs of the village.

o-0-o

"Naruto is a jinchuuriki of Kyuubi no Yoko," Ryujin said and the Hokage jerked nervously. "You pretend that he isn't and you are a very good at your game, but any old veteran can tell that some kid is a jinchuuriki when they see one. Which makes me wonder, what made you come with a weapon of mass destruction when you came in peace?"

The Hokage allowed himself a smile and sipped his tea. "Politics and gauging his skills… You can tell that he is most skilled and I knew that you would want to watch a fight with one of the younger generation of our shinobi."

"He is most skilled, indeed, he is. He might surpass his teachers in a couple of years. Or maybe sooner, especially since he has the potential of Kyuubi locked inside of him." Ryujin then suddenly paused and looked at the Hokage. "He doesn't know what that beast of chakra is, does he?"

"I cannot share that knowledge with you, not yet anyways."

Ryujin nodded and let his gaze drift across the Konoha shinobi that tried their best to mingle with his clansmen and mostly succeeded. "I'm curious how well our people will work with each other inside of the village… Most of them got used to being forced to rely on just themselves, not on something else."

"It will be tough," the Hokage said and winced. "We haven't dealt with a new clan for over forty years. And now we have you coming, a thing that will make a lot of people feel as if myths started to walk the earth."

"That's always interesting," Ryujin said with a chuckle. "If we keep a strong hand on our people it should be manageable and hopefully they won't kill each other."

o-0-o


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N – Another short chapter, but I think a lot of people will be very, very happy with the things at the end of it... **

**o-0-o**

"What did happen?"

That question was one Ibiki expected, yet didn't know how to answer. He was the one that ran counter-espionage and espionage operations and usually knew what was happening in the village. Yet now he was lacking any convincing answer for the man that was one of the most dangerous ninja ever born in Konoha.

"Ibiki, I'm patient," Jiraiya said and sighed. "Yet even I don't like no answer."

"Frankly, we don't know what happened." Ibiki saw the expression of Jiraiya harden and he internally flinched. That was no good for him. "I have theories, but none of them has any evidence to back it up."

"Speak."

"One, one of our abandoned facilities. Someone tripped one of traps and it blew up. Two, someone hid it from us and bribed one of ANBU not to mention it. Three, one of our ANBU bases that I didn't know about."

Jiraiya nodded and turned to look out of the window. The pillar of smoke and dust still rising into the sky. "A single trap wouldn't do it," he said slowly. "The amount of chakra that was used suggests more like a massive bomb mixed with incendiary charges."

"We don't plant such bombs in our facilities inside of the village."

"We long ago used to," Jiraiya said and looked at Ibiki. "Or at least Danzo did it. Orochimaru I think does it now."

"Jiraiya-sama are you sure it is one of them?"

"No, I'm not and won't be until any of my contacts can confirm that Orochimaru has any bases here. Or had." Ibiki flinched at this, but Jiraiya either didn't see it or didn't acknowledge it. "The first one is more probable, Danzo is a snake and a slimy snake at that. Orochimaru for all his cunning and guile isn't insane and is more careful."

"Should I do anything about any of them?" Ibiki asked as he grimly smiled. "I can have my ANBU drag out Danzo supporters and arrest them in the next two hours."

"No, let them live. Danzo will make his moves on his own. We just need to wait. As for Orochimaru, he is planning for the exams to make his big move. No need to make him get rash. Him attacking when we know he attacks is much better than when we don't know. Watch them, record their moves and adjust our plans."

"Understood," Ibiki said with a slight nod. "What about the ninja caught in the explosion?"

"I'll talk with them. If anybody is to give me any answers, it is them." Jiraiya opened the window and was about to jump out when he stopped and looked at Ibiki. "That mission that Yamato and Sasuke received. I didn't authorize it… How did it get authorized?"

"Yamato came asking for a simple C-rank mission for his student. The intelligence I had suggested that it would be it. Quick and easy mission against gangs. Not a run-in with the whatever they ran into."

"I see. Better hope that Sasuke is alive as sensei wants his precious Uchiha alive. Not buried under ruble."

"He is a capable shinobi and Yamato was with him. If anybody was to get them both out of troubles, it is Yamato or Kakashi."

o-0-o

Inoichi dropped onto the street in front of what used to be a warehouse and frowned. The building was simply gone. Collapsed onto itself as if some angry deity smashed it into the ground. Whoever was behind this wanted to make sure that nobody would be able to get out of the trap and wanted to bury them alive.

"And probably all of the evidence they could give us, too," he muttered darkly as he cautiously moved forward. He wasn't normally tasked with investigations, but he was also high enough to be trusted with the data related to what supposedly happened here. He scanned the area and nodded to himself.

The ANBU was securing the site and making sure nobody was close to it. An important thing considering how much in terms of explosives already was set off. It wasn't an uncommon thing to booby trap whole complexes and when one triggered one of their traps they tended to disappear in a massive explosion.

Not seeing anything obviously dangerous Inoichi leaped to the ANBU that was the captain of one of the squads. "What did you find so far?"

"Nothing, Inoichi-sama," the captain said and indicated the rubble. "Until we have one of the Inuzukas I won't start digging through that mess. From what I can tell there can be a bomb right under the first layer of it…"

"And there probably is some," Inoichi said quietly before looking at the sky and the sun in the apex of its daily movement across the heavens. "We suspect that it was done either by Orochimaru or Danzo."

"Their bases are a maze full of traps." The captain looked at one of his operatives on the ground and sent a quick message in the sign language of the ANBU. "The only thing of note so far are few bodies we found outside of the rubble."

"Show me them."

Inoichi followed the ANBU who led him to three bodies placed in the shadows and covered with some cloth. "They all died before the explosion."

"Stabbing wounds," Inoichi said quietly as he kneeled and looked more closely at the corpses. "Probably they were thugs tasked with guarding the warehouse. I don't know what kenjutsu style Sasuke knows, but whoever did it was proficient with the blade. Or lucky." He paused and looked more closely at them. "They I think were just roadblocks aimed to slow down the ANBU and keep more curious eyes away."

"They could be also there to just make sure that the warehouse was guarded."

"Which they failed to do," Inoichi commented dryly. "But then Sasuke is more than capable of killing few thugs and Yamato would rip them apart with his bare hands if given an opportunity."

"Whoever did it wasn't subtle. They did it quickly and in an efficient manner, but there was nothing stealthy in it. So whoever did it planned for their presence and had an idea on how to deal with them."

Inoichi nodded and let out a troubled sigh. "Yamato was an ANBU, a darn good one. Sasuke is a capable child that probably learned a thing or two from his sensei. Which means we might have second coming of Itachi," he said and shook his head. "Well, if Sasuke wasn't already a mental mess. But that can wait for later." Inoichi stood up and dusted off his pants. "Get the Inuzukas you need and dig Sasuke and Yamato out. And then make sure that the whole complex is collapsed."

"Hai, Inoichi-sama."

Inoichi nodded and leaped onto the roof of a nearby building. His gaze immediately drawn to the massive form of the Hokage rock. The single thing that kept all of the Konoha together and was a visible sign of its long past. As he looked at it he had a strange feeling that Konoha would need those things very soon.

The clouds were gathering, off in the distance yet. However in the world of the ninja peace could last for the next few decades or it could last for a week. Nobody knew when one of the foreign leaders would make a move triggering the next war between the villages. The chunin exams were the most obvious, yet everybody expected the troubles to happen then. Robbing attackers of the surprise, giving the defender a huge advantage of choosing not only the time, but also the place. Inoichi lived through one world war and he didn't want to live through another, nor he wanted Ino to live through it.

Yet now it seemed that nothing would stop the countries from starting it and killing each other in their quest for power, might, glory and in some cases survival. In a few also out of spite and vengeance. Humans were petty and did things out of very petty reasons.

o-0-o

Shikaku moved a shogi piece on the board and allowed himself a smile as he looked at Hyuuga Hiashi. "Hiashi-dono, can I expect your support with this new idea of mine?" the patriarch of the Nara clan asked and reached for a saucer filled with sake. "Support of your clan would be appreciated and would alleviate much of the tensions and infighting within the village."

"Shikaku-dono, it all depends on what can you offer for the support we can give," Hiashi said, moving a piece across the board. "I know how our world works and I know that an alliance can be broken minutes after it was signed. It happened to my clan in the past and I lost a brother to it."

Shikaku winced in acknowledgement, showing emotions was a risky, but often a useful and good thing in the ninja world. "That one evening was a fault on our part, of not trusting our intelligence and ANBU that reported that Kumo was up to something. We knew that they would do something, yet the Hokage made us dismiss it and assume our agents were wrong," Shikaku said and looked into the eyes of Hiashi. "I cannot return you the life of your brother, but I can tell you how did it happen that Kumo was allowed to slip through our security."

"Hokage-sama never mentioned it," Hiashi said and then added with a malign smile that didn't convey much good. "I wonder why."

"Why do you think he didn't tell you?"

"Because he didn't want to destroy the mood?" Hiashi asked and Shikaku was unsure if the Hyuuga was saying this in jest or was serious.

Shikaku chuckled softly and then shook his head. "No, no. He trusted Danzo more than he trusted us and that old warhawk said there would be nothing bad happening. I understand that Shimura Danzo is an old shinobi, with decades of experience and that he is a comrade of our Hokage…"

"But this was so foolhardy and stupid it doesn't sound like our Hokage," Hiashi said and then his eyes narrowed, veins around them bulging out. "I don't have personally much experience with genjutsu, but such a strange behavior is a sign of one."

"It is," Shikaku agreed with a heavy sigh and noticed the bulged out veins. "Do you expect troubles?"

"They found us," Hiashi said as he stood up and moved. His body moving so fast that it was more of a blur than anything. He struck out and moments later a limp body of a masked ANBU dropped onto the ground next to Shikaku. "That's not ANBU, Shikaku-dono."

"No, it is not." Shikaku pulled out a kunai and gently pressed it against the throat of the ANBU, his second hand reaching to the blank mask and ripping it away. "I know all of the ANBU personally. This one is an unknown one. Not a new recruit as he wouldn't have the right to use a mask."

"So our friend decided that he doesn't like us talking about his secrets?"

"Most likely," Shikaku grunted. "I was curious where he was for past few weeks, but now we know he has been watching us from the shadows and listening to our plans." The Nara frowned and then looked at Hiashi. "Do you see anybody else around us?"

"No…. There was one more when I struck down this one, but since then they're gone."

"That's less than ideal… I think we need to finish our meeting on some other time and now I need to drop this one off at T&I and ask Ibiki to crack down on our friend. He gutted out the supportive structures inside of our official organizations, but didn't touch yet those buried deeper."

"He should have also gutted out ROOT," Hiashi said and Shikaku only nodded. "Yet I guess he had other priorities than that."

"Foreign agents and Orochimaru." Shikaku picked up the body and then leaped onto the roof. "I suggest that the next time we meet at your compound, Hiashi-dono. Especially since we tend to attract a lot of attention and yours is closer to the center of the village."

o-0-o

Sasuke grunted as he looked around. Everything around was blurry and dark, even the enhanced vision provided by the Sharingan didn't let him see much. The dust was everywhere and he could see barely anywhere further than his chest.

He tried to move and he found he was unable to do it. A massive chunk of concrete was laying across his legs, keeping them and him in place. A pained groan escaped his lips as the pain finally got through his dazed and shocked mind.

He moved, or tried to move his leg and a pain shot through his lower body. A loud scream ripping out of his throat. He was a ninja, used to pain in all kinds and flavors of it since he was an infant. Yet the training didn't prepare him for the feeling he was now experiencing.

o-0-o

Yamato wiped sweat off his brow as he finished channeling chakra into the wooden wall he summoned to stop the debris and fire. That warning from Sasuke came at the very last moment. Seconds more and they both would be crushed by the pieces of the building that crashed upon them, incinerated by the flames or killed by the force of the explosion.

"That was close," he murmured and rummaged in a pouch he had on his belt. He pulled out of it a flare and lit up. He needed the light, security and the chance of discovery was a secondary issue for him. Especially now when he was pretty darn sure that everybody else in those corridors was as buried as he was. Or dead.

About that second possibility he didn't want to think about because of Sasuke. Yet it was still a very real thing and his experience told him that it was more probable than serious injuries or none at all.

In the bright light of the flare he looked around. Outside of the dome formed by his jutsu everywhere was stone, concrete and steel. Most of it coming from the structures above destroyed by the explosions. Sasuke was somewhere behind it, most likely partially buried in the whole mess and getting to him was a priority for Yamato.

Considering his options for few seconds Yamato placed his hand on his wooden wall and channeled more chakra into it. Extending it towards the direction when Sasuke roughly was. Then he made a couple of handseals and as his fist was covered in rocks he smiled before punching concrete in front of him.

The block shattered into dust, those above kept by the wood that prevented them from falling. "Let's hope it holds," an ANBU turned jonin-sensei murmured as he looked at the wood.

Seeing no bends, cracks or fissures he moved forward and started to move aside and destroy further pieces of debris on his path. Slowly clearing out more and more space that gave him more breathing room and opened him further possibilities.

o-0-o

Jiraiya leaped from roof to roof. Four ANBU around him in a protective detail. Then a hail of kunai came out of nowhere and forced the whole group to scatter. The deadly, howling projectiles making sure they were far apart from each other.

Jiraiya reached out to a nearby branch of an oak tree and grasped it before nimbly landing atop it. Kunai harmlessly flying below him. "That was close," he murmured, his keen eyes scanning the cityscape around him. Trying to see the unseen assailant that dared to attack him.

Dared to attack him in the middle of Konoha. The village that was his home and the place he swore to defend as a shinobi and did for more than forty years. The one that attacked him here of all places was either extremely brave or stupid. Or a combination of both.

Any of the Sannin was a monster of a ninja and killing one required a great amount of resources. An amount so great that most villages had a flee on sight order for all, but their most experienced ninja when coming across him or one of his former teammates. Even Tsunade who was more of a medic and potion maker was a formidable fighter that could kill jonin as if they were civilian thugs.

Which said a lot about ones attacking him. Jiraiya's eyes narrowed when an ANBU with a blank mask and a tanto with a chipped off tip dropped in front of him. "Danzo's lackeys," he commented before striking out with an open hand and smashing the chest of the ROOT in front of him.

"Where are you, warhawk?" Jiraiya asked as he looked at the corpse with most of its chest gone or pulverized. "I want to have words with you."

"I think that the time of Hiruzen is over," Danzo said, stepping out of the shadow of the leaves. "And for the village to reach greatness you also need to be gone."

"Eh, killing me isn't easy," Jiraiya said calmly as he prepared for fight. "There's a reason why Danzo gave us the title of Sannin. And since then I only grew in power and knowledge."

"And I had been trained by the Nidaime Hokage himself," Danzo said before tossing kunais at Jiraiya.

Jiraiya leaped out of the path of the incoming projectiles and landed on the roof of a house below. With danger avoided he considered his options for a fraction of a second before smiling and flashing through a chain of seals.

A ball of flames exploded from his mouth and roared forth towards Danzo. It exploded and enveloped the old warhawk and much of the tree in a fiery embrace. Setting it ablaze and consuming rapidly.

"He trained you well," Danzo said as he appeared above Jiraiya, sword held in his outstretched hands. The blade of the katana sliced through Jiraiya's head and chest, right as he turned into a pile of mud.

He's not toying around, Jiraiya thought as he watched Danzo from a distance away, I can beat him. But Kami only knows what Orochimaru did to him and what he has hidden under those bandages. He certainly isn't the old, infirm elder he poses to be.

Jiraiya stepped into the open. His hands already moving and sending a wave of shuriken and kunai towards his opponent. "_Katon – Ryuka no Jutsu!_" Jiraiya roared and a dragon shaped ball of flames hurled itself towards Danzo.

Such a Katon attack was not a jutsu any ninja, even a jonin could toss around like it was nothing. Yet Jiraiya was a Sannin, a ninja that was a level or two above the average elite of the world. However the same was true for Danzo, a ninja born in the times when clans engaged in an eternal war and ninja grew up quickly.

"_Doton – Doryuheki!_" Danzo said and a barrier of mud appeared in front of him. The fire washing over it harmlessly. Only managing to scorch the outside surface and not doing any damage to the person behind it. "_Doton – Doryudan!_"

Jiraiya's eyes widened as his sensei's trademark jutsu was used against him and in a _shunshin _he was gone out of its path. Seconds later appearing above Danzo, right leg extended and on the collision course with the head of the warhawk.

"You can't beat me," Danzo said, effortlessly moving out of the way of the kick and responding with his own. One that caught Jiraiya completely by surprise and hurled him flying into a nearby house.

Jiraiya smashed into a wall with a force of a wrecking ball and punched through the wall as if it wasn't there before stopping inside of a room. Pieces of debris scattered around him as he got up and considered his options.

"Time to pull all stops and summon Them," he said grimly and bit on his thumb, drawing some blood.

o-0-o

Naruto let out a happy sigh as he lowered himself into a water that was just the right temperature. Not too hot and not too cold. Perfect for helping him relax his sore and abused muscles after the insane fight with Sanga.

"You realize that my sister has hots for you?" Raiden asked with a bit of a chuckle.

Naruto tensed and looked at the boy with a bit of surprise.

"It's pretty obvious once you know her," Raiden continued, ignoring the startled expression. "Also, you are a pretty decent fighter so that makes us respect you a bit more. I mean, you managed to defeat my sister who's pretty strong…"

"I didn't even try that much," Naruto said and paused, looking for words. "Just until recently I was a dead last of my class at the Ninja Academy and on my team. Until my current sensei started to train me individually. So now I want to show him and our leader, the Hokage, that I'm not a dead last and that I am a strong ninja."

Raiden chuckled at this and Naruto looked at him in some confusion. "You are a strong ninja," he said and then let out a content, relaxed sigh. Submerging himself deeper in the water. "For once, relax and forget about the world. This place is as safe as it can be. Especially since the whole clan is gathering and we have sentries around our whole camp."

o-0-o

**A/N – Some bombs dropped, now I can leave you waiting until Christmas for the next chapter or so. On a more serious note, maybe a chapter or two will show up soon, or maybe not.**

**Reviews – Won't comment on any because denying or confirming anything would spoil the fun for me. **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N – Short chapter, but I am a busy person and writing them longer is a pain. And I love dosing information bit by bit. Too much at once is bad, so have fun with what I gave you.**

**o-0-o**

Yamato panted as he pushed aside a thick, wooden support beam and looked ahead. Somewhere there was Sasuke, he was fairly certain that he was moving in the right direction. Yet in the darkness and the smoke that was everywhere, his flare already burned out, being sure was hard.

He had a rough idea of a direction where Sasuke was, however getting there was a far harder task. Even for someone like him, an experienced jonin and ANBU. He could bore through the rubble quickly, but those jutsu tended to murder everything on their path.

Making them less than suitable for search and rescue operations, especially when someone that was to be rescued was so precious to Konoha.

Yamato shook his head and kept on digging through the rubble, making sure not to use too much force and not to kill anybody by accident. Even if most of the people that were buried with them in this were enemies, there was a decent chance they would be of some use to Ibiki. If alive, that is.

o-0-o

Shikaku threw the body of the ROOT agent onto the floor of Ibiki's office and looked at his friend. "Do you need further proof we have no more pressing issues than them?"

Ibiki seemed unfazed as he touched the body with his boot. "Where?"

"My house. I had a meeting with Hiashi about things that should stay away from Danzo…. Or other factions wanting to stir troubles." Shikaku kneeled and looked at the man, well a boy, if he was honest. "If he is as brainwashed as the rest of them, even Inoichi won't do much with him. ROOT had its purpose, now it's out of control."

"And Danzo probably lost his mind, or at least wants to commit treason." On Ibiki's face there was a smile that sent shivers down Shikaku's spine. "Before you ask, he decided to attack Jiraiya-sama. In the open. In the middle of the village, with dozens of witnesses."

"We didn't have such events since the disagreements between the Sannins," Shikaku said and groaned. "If he dies, someone needs to run to the Hokage with the news and that someone might not come back alive. If Danzo wins, we end up dead."

"I wouldn't be so sure, you see, I had feelings this warhawk would do something foolish so for past few weeks I've been slipping various poisons into his foods and drinks." Ibiki shrugged. "Doses so small he couldn't detect and harmless, but given time and build up…"

"He will die or at least get so weak anybody can murder him."

"I would prefer, dispose of. But yes, he will die and I think Jiraiya-sama should do it." Ibiki looked silently at the corpse and then grunted. "The problem is, if he dies, he leaves as orphans his whole network of spies and assassins. They're everywhere." Shikaku looked up, only for Ibiki to shrug. "Most is useless, especially on their own. But some gems are dangerous and there are probably some protocols in place if they don't get a message in say a week or two."

"All of which are known to Danzo," Shikaku finished, paling rapidly. "And only Danzo."

"Quite. Jiraiya-sama is a spy master that has his contacts everywhere, but even he will lack the means to remove such a thing without showing our friends what we're up to." Ibiki paused and looked at the ceiling. "As much as I would prefer to wait out the fight and arrive fashionably late…"

Shikaku nodded and the two of them were gone, running out of the office and the complex where T&I existed into Konoha.

o-0-o

Anko stood motionlessly on the roof and watched as her apprentice walked after her target. Even if Sakura wasn't particularly sure of herself, this particularly genin was an idiot that could probably be murdered by an Academy student. However, the trick was to make it look innocent enough so that the ANBU would be able to tidy it up.

A messy murder in the bright day of the day was an option, but a bad one when removing a spy. Well, Anko corrected herself, it wasn't necessarily a bad one. Just it had its time and place, none of which was right now. With Hokage out of the village and recent purges of spies and other troublemakers nobody needed to be even more scared.

"Well, let's see how well you will do it," Anko muttered as she jumped onto the next roof. "I don't care if you die, but it would get messy, so don't screw this up kiddo."

Much to Anko's surprise Sakura did what she was supposed to do. Her target was as dumb and predictable as Anko thought and the moment he saw Sakura appear in front of him with a bouquet of flowers he lost his focus. Wholly focused on the flowers, not noticing they were one of the more poisonous ones.

One sniff of them and he was already grasping his neck, unable to breath.

"Well, everybody in ANBU will be puzzled by who did this," Anko chuckled as Sakura appeared next to her. "Jealous lovers and such are a thing we don't usually consider seriously." Anko shrugged. "Sure, some ninja murder lovers of their crush, but it's rare and far between. And usually ANBU stops their investigation on the jealous lover. You used that genjutsu and the flovers are impossible to trace. Perfect murder."

Anko grinned and patted Sakura on her back.

"Just stay out of sight for few hours or days and try not to get seen close to any area where there is a lot of ANBU. I don't think they will be paying much attention to this, but some might."

Sakura was gone and Anko made a note to go and check on her in few moments. However, first she had other things to check, including making sure some savvy ANBU did the investigation. There was no reason to cause more troubles with it than necessary and more experienced ANBU knew that when murdered was a spy, they needed to bend the truth. More naïve ones tended to carry out a honest investigation…, a very annoying thing for many people.

o-0-o

Naruto let out a relaxed sigh as he laid in the water. His mind able to fully unwind and forget about the hardships of his life. The forests around the Senju camp having in themselves something that allowed him to relax. There was some strange energy, energy that soothed his mind and pushed his worries aside.

"You feel that energy, don't you?" Raiden asked and Naruto looked at him. "Makes you feel peaceful, relaxed and all nice?"

"Y… yes, what is it?"

"Natural energy," Raiden said and shrugged. "Forests have it, every plant has it. Even every single animal has it. Normally it's impossible to detect and you need to know it's there to see it. Here? Those forests are old and full of chakra. Only someone completely blind to it can't feel it."

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes, focusing on his surroundings. The noise of water, of the wind blowing by and so on quickly pushed out of his mind as he slipped into a meditative state. He never did it before on his own, yet here something was pulling him into that state.

Only for Raiden's hand to slap across his back. "No, Naruto," Raiden said, his red eyes looking into Naruto's blue ones with some worry. "You wanted to focus that chakra. It's an insanely risky process."

"Why?"

"Because you would turn into a stone sculpture at the end," Raiden said and paused for a second. "Well, you wouldn't if you knew how, but you don't know. So, yes, we would have one stone sculpture of Naruto and one overgrown kitsune running loose."

Naruto chuckled at this joke, it wasn't a good one, but it let him relax a bit. "So, how is it that you know about it and I don't?"

"Lack of education on your part?" Raiden took a guess and ducked under Naruto's swing. "Or maybe I'm more intelligent and observant?"

"Boys will be boys," Sanga said with a sigh as she appeared between them and stopped them. "Stop fooling around and start behaving.

Naruto paused, mid-swing and looked at her. "Your brother started it!"

"He sure did, yet it was you who got goaded into attacking him." Sanga smiled. "It seems you are having issues with your temper. So, now be a good being and apologize to my brother and stop be mean."

Naruto bowed his head towards Raiden and nodded. "I'm sorry."

"It's all fine," Raiden said, patting him on the shoulder. "I might have been a bit too harsh in my comments."

o-0-o

Jiraiya sensed the movement long before Danzo was about to hit him and moved out of the way. As the warhawk hurled himself through the air, the Toad Sage prepared himself and then grasped the elderly man before tossing him against a nearby wall.

"I expected more," Jiraiya commented with a frown.

"He would have give you more," commented one of the toads sitting on Jiraiya's shoulders. "If you fought him a decade or two ago. Now he is an aged and ill shinobi that's more of a politician than a warrior."

"I mean something else," Jiraiya said and paused, gathering his thoughts. "He isn't fighting at his best. Somehow, for some reason, he holds back. I was expecting him to be more aggressive, more determined."

"He could have been hoping to end you with a single strike and didn't come prepared for a prolonged duel."

Jiraiya scoffed, but then paused. Perhaps there was something to those words, Danzo was known more for acting behind the scenes than for his battlefield prowess. It didn't mean that he was weak, far from it actually, it was that he was just less skilled in those arts than other shinobi of comparable power.

As he mused on this topic Danzo emerged from the rubble, bandages on his right arm torn and showing a skin of a completely different color than the rest of Danzo's body. Jiraiya hissed at this, handiwork of his former teammate was clear to see and disgusting for him. Implanting an artificially grown arm in the place of a working limb was sickening. And it all was done just because it could connect one to the Shodaime Hokage and give the user some sliver of the power wielded by the long gone Senju.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Danzo asked, carefully removing the rest of the bandages. Revealing even more disgusting and sick effects of Orochimaru's experiments.

"Sharingan?" Jiraiya whispered. "But how."

"You all were fools that didn't see the potential of those eyes," Danzo said as he leaped at Jiraiya. "All you saw was the threat that the Uchiha presented. I just used the gifts of both of those bloodlines."

Jiraiya hissed as he parried a kick, he didn't expect a Sharingan to be in Danzo's arsenal which made this whole thing much more troublesome and annoying. It didn't make it an impossible one, just a hard and annoying one.

"So that's why we sensed natural energy" the toads croaked and Jiraiya glanced at them. "His arm. It gathers the natural energy just by existing. It won't turn him into a sculpture, nor will it give him the true power of a Sennin, but it will make him harder to defeat."

"And he has the Sharingan. Most jutsu and physical attacks will be blocked by him."

Jiraiya moved out of the way of a punch that could very easily break his arm and disappeared in a _shunshin. _He reappeared hidden in bushes several dozen meters away from Danzo and rummaged through his pouch with the gear.

"He is older than I am and has less chakra, even with what Orochimaru did to him."

"Those Sharingans aren't like the true Sharingan, they are there for a forgotten jutsu of the Uchiha clan."

"What do you mean, Fugaku-sama?" Jiraiya asked, addressing the male toad. "Why one would need so many eyes for it?"

"One eye, one life. You get killed, but you can exchange the eye for a chance to cheat the death. The moment you use it, you lose the eye," Fugusaku-sama said. "In the past it was rarely used, because nobody wanted to sacrifice their eyes, but here, he was ten eyes.

"So he has eleven lives, so to say," Jiraiya said with a grimace. "An annoying thing, but I think I know how to deal with this bastard. Unless, he has me in some genjutsu that I didn't detect yet."

"We would have sensed it," Fugaku said and Jiraiya looked at the aged toad. "Did you forget all of your lessons Jiraiya-chan? Sharingan is based on eye contact and we, the Sannin, can easily dispel any genjutsu it throws at us. If he was an Uchiha, I would be concerned by what he can. He isn't, he doesn't have much prowess with those eyes of his and lacks their understanding of them."

Jiraiya nodded and pulling out a modified explosive note he got up. "Time to skin the snake and make sure it doesn't slither away," he said grimly, in his second hand a kunai.

o-0-o

"Naruto, he has changed," someone said and Kakashi almost jumped up in surprise. People walking on him were rare.

He slowly turned around and eye-smiled at Asuma. "Sure, did. Telling him few things and more attention worked wonders. He might one day be as good as his father."

"He knows that?" Asuma asked, a clear edge to his voice.

"Not yet," Kakashi said and ignored the warning. "Yes, I don't bloody care if he tells anybody whom is his father. Unless most assassins and ninja lost their common sense, they won't touch him if I'm nearby and I won't be the only dangerous enemy nearby."

Asuma looked at him and Kakashi could tell that the laid back shinobi was not pleased what he heard. "The Hokage…"

"Did what was maybe a necessity when we were recovering from the mess caused by Kyubi," Kakashi snapped. "Now? I don't bloody think it matters and I would want to see the Hokage try to stop me."

"He can tell you to stop it or he brands you a nukenin," Asuma quietly said and Kakashi glared at his friend. "I don't think he will do it, but he has every right to do it. After all you willfully ignore his commands and endanger the village and shinobi under your command."

"I did not," Kakashi said as he got up. "Not now, especially not now. Most of our rivals are focused on salvaging their spy networks and are too busy figuring out what exactly pushed us to kill almost all of their spies with no prior warning. Nobody before did it at such a scale, I think they fear us and fear what we can possibly do."

"Perhaps you are right," Asuma conceded. "But perhaps you are wrong and they will leap to our throat the moment they learn about his parentage."

Kakashi didn't comment on it and instead moved past Asuma. "I suggest you train your genin harder, Asuma, or my team will kick their asses in the upcoming exams."

"They're better than you give them credit for, Kakashi."

"I give credit, when credit is due." With those words Kakashi was gone, not even an afterimage left in his wake. Just one moment he was there. Another, there was a patch of ruffled grass. Its blades slightly bent from the weight of a human standing on them.

o-0-o

Sarutobi Hiruzen was a man that saw several generations pass by, most of them pulled into the uncaring, brutal and cruel machine of warfare that seemed to dominate the politics of the past fifty years. The ninja villages tried to establish their spheres of influence, while their host countries tried to carve out their own borders. He grimaced at those thoughts, when the word and paper on which treaties were written was not enough many resorted to violence and subterfuge. Forcing the rest to follow them or become the prey of those that were less scrupulous and cared only about their organization or state becoming the most powerful and putting the rest in its shade.

"Thinking that another period of unrest and chaos comes?" Ryujin asked and Hiruzen looked at him. "According to what you mentioned there were over twenty years from the last war and new rulers tend to forget the cost of wars fought by their parents and grandparents. Not many rules for more than a decade, you or I, are an exception. We live on against all odds and enemies."

"Not that we become much wiser," Hiruzen muttered quietly and winced. "Well, perhaps we become a tiny bit less hot-blooded and rash. Actually able to think first, than commit to acting based on what we think is right or wrong."

"Which while not much, it's more than enough to prevent senseless bloodshed of wars. We know how to ease and divert the tensions that ravage those that trusted us to lead them."

"Or at least we pretend to know it," Hiruzen said with a snort, his gaze drawn to Sanga, Naruto and Raiden. "Children, so innocent and so idealistic. They don't know how awfully cruel and cynical is the world they live in."

"It's better than it was during the clan era, but aye. They die on battlefields because some blood thirsty ruler decided that he wants to be known in the history as the one that brought his village or clan to greatness."

"Now there seems to be some sense of calmness and serenity, as if a storm was coming," Hiruzen said, one of his aged eyes casting a look at the sky. "There are few months away from it, maybe more. But that it will hit is more than certain. I would ask how strongly, but I don't want to tempt the fate. It tends to be very cruel for those that try this feat."

Ryujin chuckled, his voice dry and mirthless. Yet there was something in it that made Hiruzen smile. "See, when you know that tempting the fate is bad. Many less careful people do it and let Kami decide whether they should live or die."

"And then they die or get maimed by the fate," the Hokage said and exhaled slowly. "Can your people get back to the camp by tomorrow evening?"

Several moments of silence passed with Ryujin standing motionless, with only his mind working. "I think yes," he finally said. "If we decide to move out by the dawn, they all should be here."

"Traveling during the day will be safer and less dangerous. But then, I'm in a bit of a haste as several mice want to test what can happen to them when the cat is elsewhere."

Ryujin laughed, this time more warmly and the Hokage looked at him. "The problem of every ruler. How to keep your people in line and not plotting your demise."

o-0-o

**A/N – All those thinking about Danzo. Think what he gets if he manages to kill Jiraiya and prepare some evidence of his treason. This moment is the only good moment for him, unless he wants to deal with a very, very mad Kage at the same time, who might be in less than forgiving mood.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N – Sorry for delays, but life and other distractions and Muse got in the way. Anyhow, the chapter is here and I think you should enjoy it a lot.**

o-0-o

Jiraiya leaped out of his cover. His long mane of white hair flying behind him as he moved through the air. The gaze of his eyes focused on the rough direction of Danzo. He wouldn't let that being get away alive this time and would make damn sure to murder him.

"He is above you," Fukusaku croaked.

The second Jiraiya heard it he moved out of the way. His hand reaching out, almost on its own and grabbing Danzo out of the air. Using his own momentum and that of Danzo, he twisted himself in the air and managed to land a kick on Danzo's back before the older shinobi got a chance to position himself properly.

"You're good," Danzo said quietly, a chokuto appearing in his hand. "But not good enough to stop me and ruin Konoha's future."

"Your vision of Konoha's future is not the one shared by the Shodaime and Nidaime." Jiraiya parried a strike coming towards his face and at the same time pulled out a second kunai. Slipping it past Danzo's defense he drove it into Danzo's eye before kicking away the corpse.

Only for it to disappear, as if it was an illusion. One moment there was a dead Danzo hurling through the air. The next, there was nothing, just few trails of smoke.

"He did it," Shima said with a hiss. "The jutsu we warned you about."

Jiraiya muttered fouly under his breath as he looked around, searching for where Danzo hid. He really started to hate the old shinobi. Not only did he have a lot of skeletons that could fall out of his closet, but he also was a bastard to fight. If he was honest, he would have preferred dealing with Orochimaru, at least the snake was somewhat predictable and he knew him.

A gust of wind passed behind him and Jiraiya disappeared in _shunshin_, he didn't want to be caught by a _Fuuton_ jutsu, especially when he could avoid it and he knew that Danzo was mostly famous for his _Fuuton_ prowess.

"He is better than I expected him to be," Jiraiya said, landing on a roof of some house. "I might have underestimated him."

"And you became rusted," Shima murmured quietly. "Focus, Jiraiya-chan and win the duel with him. You can do it, you just need to focus on the task."

Biting on his lip Jiraiya nodded, the mane of white hair flowing behind him as he considered his chances. He could win the duel, he just needed to sever the damn arm before Danzo had another chance at using it to pull his ass out of the fire. Breathing deeply Jiraiya reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a sealing tag.

"Ma, Pa," he said, breathing deeply and loudly exhaling the air. "One of you needs to attach the tag to him. If it's me, he'll notice it and prevent it... One of you has a chance of doing it."

"I'll do it," Shima croaked and took the tag from him. "Once you're in melee with him. I'll have a second to slip behind him and touch him. He shouldn't notice."

Jiraiya nodded. The gesture curt and simple. Then he leaped into the air, chakra channelled into the soles of his sandals propelling him high into the air. Normally he wouldn't do it, alas, now he wanted to be seen by Danzo and attacked. He scanned the area, looking for even the slightest movement, the slightest twitch of a shadow. Anything that could reveal Danzo was now precious to him.

The leaves of trees were ruffled and a blade shaped out of pure wind shot towards him. Jiraiya could feel the raw chakra in the blade and he just moved out of its way, dodging the deadly jutsu and letting it pass harmlessly.

"Really?" he snorted as he threw himself towards the place where he expected Danzo to be. "That's a move that could surprise a chunin. Not me."

Crashing through the leaves and branches Jiraiya reached for a second kunai, the deadly steel blade dully shining in his hand as he pulled it out and flicked into a comfortable position. He saw a blur move, it was so fast that he barely managed to get the short knives into a position to block an attack.

Danzo's strike was swift and way too powerful than Jiraiya expected from the warhawk. Grunting he stopped the advisor in place and then looked at Ma. She jumped above Danzo, bounced off a branch above him and smashed into his back, smacking him in the neck. The next second Jiraiya drove his kunai through Danzo's eye and this time the advisor didn't disappear like an illusion.

"He is finally dead," Jiraiya said as he looked at the corpse. "He was too stubborn to retire. Now he is dead."

"Aye," Ma said as she landed next to the body. "We will need to speak soon, Jiraiya-chan. Your godson needs to learn about the things you were trusted with and you can't run away from him any longer."

Jiraiya frowned and looked at the toad. "He will be given it all in due time. However, now he has other things to worry about." He sighed; the gaze of his eyes drawn to Danzo's body. "Same as I have other matters. Especially now that Danzo is dead. There are so many skeletons in his closet I am aware of and so many more I'm not aware that next few months I'll be spending cleaning it up."

"Which doesn't mean you can't put aside a day or two for your godson," Ma said, whacking Jiraiya across his head as she jumped onto his shoulder. "Or do we need to force you?"

o-0-o

Stone cracked, bits and pieces of it falling down from high above showering Sasuke in a rain of painful sensations. He glanced up and saw branches of a tree grow through the debris. The strange tree was growing at a rate that not even bamboo could grow at and it was hard enough to crack stone and concrete. Somehow it bored a hole through the piece concrete above Sasuke. Uchiha's eyes widened in shock when he noticed his sensei squeeze through the hole between pieces of wood.

"It took me longer than it should have," Yamato said, half of his arm looking like a massive branch of a tree. He noticed Sasuke's gaze focused on it and he sighed. "We'll have a long talk once I dig you out. This ability of mine is a secret of Konoha and you shouldn't be made aware of it until you are ANBU. Or a jonin trusted by the Hokage and allowed to work with the ANBU."

Sasuke gasped, pain shooting through his leg as he tried to shift and get a more comfortable position. "What... Is it?" He asked, almost crying out in pain.

"Later," Yamato said, sliding down and stopping next to Sasuke. He made several handseals and the tree from his hand started to grow, easily pushing under the rubble that kept Sasuke's legs trapped. "First let's get you out and to the medics. Once you're patched up, we can worry about your questions."

Yamato grunted, beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he manipulated the strange branches that seemed to be growing out of his hand. Sasuke hissed as he felt the rubble shift and move, somewhat freeing his legs and reminding him how badly they hurt.

"Broken legs," Yamato said quietly as he looked at Sasuke's legs, bent under unnatural angles and with a pool of blood growing under one of them. "You'll be unable to train for few months." The jonin paused and looked at Sasuke, his expression strangely unsettling. "It's still a better out of the two outcomes." He looked up and a grimace, one Sasuke couldn't read appeared on his face. "The ceiling seems stable enough for me to use my jutsu and don't worry about burying us. I can punch through it, but there's no certainty of the locations we'll emerge."

"More of those strange shinobi waiting for us?" Sasuke asked and bit down on his lip as he tried not to cry out in pain. "Or something else?"

"I don't think there will be that many of them left nor that they would like to be out in the open. You see, those ninjas shouldn't be existing." Yamato allowed himself a smile. "There is a long story related to them, but they shouldn't exist and shouldn't make themselves known to the public as the Hokage might lose his patience. So, I doubt that they would show themselves around the warehouse. What I'm worried about is, where exactly we are."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked at the jonin and then at the ceiling far above them. "Not under the warehouse?"

"No," Yamato said and winced. "Assuming that the building still stands. The bombs that buried us here, probably also collapsed the building onto us. Just to make sure we are trapped." He smiled, a bit dryly. "That's the standard practice of the ANBU, bury someone alive and then drop more rocks onto them. Doton jutsu are powerful, but they have limits and most people don't have enough chakra and tolerance to pain to dig through a lot of rocks burying them."

"Sensei, can you dig us out and then worry about where we are a bit later?"

Yamato bit his lower lip and then went through a chain of seals Sasuke never saw before. "Yes, it won't be easy or pleasant, but yes." When he said those words, he grunted and then smashed his hands against the ground. For a moment nothing happened, then a tremor passed through the rubble and they were pushed upwards, the earth parting on its own in front of them.

Sasuke didn't know how this jutsu was called, but the second he saw the sheer power of it, he knew he would need to learn it sooner or later. Power was one thing, second was how extremely useful it could be for him and his team. It could let them escape out of traps and probably would allow them to move relatively unseen.

o-0-o

Naruto yawned as he laid down on a rock shelf that was protected from the wind by the branches of the tree wrapped almost protectively around it. It wasn't much, but he preferred it over nothing. It was also much better than the normal places where they normally made camps. He felt safe and relaxed here, not constantly on edge and ready to attack as usually.

"You can get used to it," Sanga murmured quietly slipping silently towards him. Naruto turned his head and looked at the brown haired and red-eyed beauty from the Senju clan. "We all sleep like this when we travel… It's much more comfortable than sleeping on bare earth and enjoying bugs and other things trying to eat you."

Frowning Naruto looked at her, then at the stone on which both of them laid wrapped in thick blankets and then once again at her. "Perhaps there is some merit to this way of sleeping. But stone is cold and uncomfortable."

Sanga laughed and sat up on the thick blanket. "It is cold, which isn't a bad thing when we have summer, winter though… Yes, it can be somewhat unpleasant. That's why we try to find caves for the winter and wait it out there until it gets warm enough to once again freely travel."

"Sounds very different from my life in the village," Naruto said and closed his eyes, in front of them appearing flashbacks to the time he spent in the village. "It's such a nice and strange at the same time place."

"In the village you have guarantee of safety, don't you?"

Letting out a troubled sigh Naruto looked at her. He felt that he should lie and don't mention that some people in the village made it a dangerous place. But at the same time, he wanted to make her like the village and be willing to stay in it. "Yes," he finally said. "The village was attacked by Kyuubi on the day I was born, but since then it lived in peace and safety. We can train and learn new skills within the safety of the village walls and protected by the shinobi of the village."

Sanga smiled at him, her red eyes focused and Naruto felt as if she tried to see through him. "That must be so nice," she said quietly. "Just be able to be yourself and don't care about the dangers of the outside world. I, and many more of the clan, dreamt for years to have a safe haven. A place where we can return without worrying that an enemy waits for us."

"But as a clan you are independent," Naruto said with a frown. "Don't you like the autonomy it comes with?"

A sigh got out of Sanga's lips. "Raiden, tell him," she murmured, looking at her brother that appeared out of nowhere, almost scaring Naruto "Explain to him why so many of us dislike being on our own."

"No allies, no friends we can fall back upon and constantly on the run," Raiden said quietly. "It probably sounds nice to you, but I and many others would really prefer to have a safe haven. Yes, if we are independent, we can do whatever we do, but we lack supplies all the time and we need to be very careful where and how we move."

"Oh…"

"Yes," Raiden said and reached to a katana strapped across his back. "Most of the weapons we use are heirlooms passed from parents onto children. All of you have gear that makes some of the clansmen jealous, gear that we would usually scavenge off the battlefields and take from our enemies."

"You rob corpses?!" Naruto asked with widened eyes. He was disgusted by the idea of robbing corpses, he knew it was done in the past, but now Konoha was in such a position that it didn't need to do it.

Sanga shook her head and Naruto looked at her. "We do it, because we must. Chakra and your jutsu can get you only so far. You want anything more? You need the gear."

"Yes…, even if we like the freedom that comes with being on our own. We're going to leap at the first chance of getting a stable source of weapons and other gear we use." Sanga yawned and laid down on a blanket she spread in the corner. "I suggest you get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be hectic and you don't want to fall asleep in the middle of it all."

o-0-o

"Danzo is dead," Ibiki said and paused, as if searching for a word. "That is going to be problematic."

Shikaku winced at Ibiki's words and then slowly nodded. "Aye," he said after a moment. "The secrets he knows and the networks he runs are now going to scatter to winds and our enemies will happily support their efforts to get revenge."

"That's less bad of the two things his death causes. He knows too much, his agents know too much. Their vengeance is an annoyance compared to how much they know about our procedures, training, ciphers and interrogation techniques." Ibiki let out an annoyed grunt and walked to a window. "We need to kill or capture as many of those agents as we can. Otherwise all of the projects they knew about will no longer be a secret and that's going to be problematic in the long run. You should know as much."

Shikaku was about to speak when the door was smashed open and Jiraiya walked in, a corpse of Danzo over his shoulder. "Can you dispose of him? Somewhere out of the way and hidden?" The Sannin asked, dropping the corpse onto the floor. "On a second thought, burn him to ash. I don't want to know what jutsu he has hidden in his body."

An eyebrow arching gently was all that Shikaku allowed to change in his expression as he looked at the corpse. _So, the warhawk finally fell, _he mused, _I did not expect him to be that foolish… Mayhap he was not foolish, but knew that it was now or never and miscalculated his chances and odds in his favor._

"Well," Ibiki said, his voice cold and lacking any emotions. There was just icy emptiness that freaked out Shikaku. "You made a mistake, Jiraiya-sama. He is dead and now his networks will scream for vengeance. I know you tried to save your hide. But. You. Made. A. Mistake. And. Konoha. Will. Pay."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed as he regarded coldly Ibiki with something that was more than the annoyance of a Hokage that was talked to by their advisor. "Ibiki…"

Shikaku sighed and went almost mindlessly through a chain of handseals. A shadow leapt from the walls and immobilized both Jiraiya and Ibiki. "Behave, both of you," he said and yawned. "You're so troublesome when you argue and I have enough of troublesome things to not want more. I'll keep you restrained until you cool your heads."

A snarl got out of Jiraiya's mouth as he flared his chakra in a show of power that made Shikaku roll his eyes in annoyance. "Tell Ibiki to back off," Jiraiya murmured quietly. "He isn't wrong, but also letting Danzo live would have been an equally foolish idea."

"Yes." Shikaku turned away from the two shinobi, cancelled his jutsu and approached Ibiki's desk. "It is maybe a coincidence, but Danzo didn't only want you killed. You were his main target, but he had his damned ROOT target me, Shibi, Inoichi, Hiashi and several other high-ranking ninja. I appreciate that he is dead and that no more assassination attempts can't be ordered by him. But I would have much more appreciate him locked in a suitably small cell where he cannot do much damage."

As Shikaku slowly turned he could see his friend and a student of the Hokage change. The anger and fury visible only seconds before they were replaced by shock and shame. Shame at what he had done and how much damage to Konoha in the long run he caused.

"You removed the source of poison inside of our ranks, but at what cost?" Ibiki asked. "His agents…"

"Yes, I know," Jiraiya cut in. "They're everywhere and I'll try to use my friends and contacts to keep the troubles contained. I won't promise a big success, but I will try to limit the scale and scope of Danzo's activity."

"Good." Shikaku looked at the papers strewn across the desk and then frowned. Something was wrong, what, he couldn't tell, but he had a growing feeling something was very, very wrong. "We need to keep preparing for the chunin exams and we need to make sure nobody learns how or why Danzo was killed."

"They will talk," Ibiki said quietly. "They will talk and talk loudly at that. That fight was seen by everybody with a working set of eyes. There's nothing we can do about it beyond acknowledge and shape how they see it. Hide it? Forget about it."

"He is right." Jiraiya's voice was strangely quiet and subdued. A thing that threw Shikaku out of balance more than the rest of the events of the crazy day. "We need to make them buy our story, story that can be as unbelievable as you want it to be, but needs to be consistent."

"Can you do it?"

Jiraiya winced. "I never really wrote propaganda, but I can try and craft a story for us to tell others. Until then, shut up and lie that you don't know what happened." The Sannin shrugged. "They will otherwise haunt you until you tell them something and that something might be worse than not telling them anything."

o-0-o

"They adapted well to those strange circumstances," Yuuhi Kurenai said as she poked the fire to make it brighter. "I did expect a lot more troubles, especially from the boys."

Kakashi chuckled mirthlessly, the gaze of his sole eye focused on the stone ledge where his sole student slept. "For Naruto, they're family in a strange way. He will do a lot to impress them with his behavior and he will do everything he can for them to like him." The silver-haired jonin eye-smiled. "Your team is a bigger surprise, Kurenai."

"Kiba…," Kurenai sighed. "He's a brat. If he doesn't cause some troubles tomorrow, I will be very surprised. He lacks much common sense and there are people he will try to impress with his foolish antics."

"He will learn in few months or years when such behavior is tolerate and when he needs to be careful," Asuma muttered quietly. "Hana was very similar when she was younger. Now she is still wild and hard to control, but she knows how to rein herself and keep herself from doing something incredibly stupid."

"And the Senju might keep that mutt in line," Kakashi added. "Anyways, the Senju, I'm surprised by them. They're different than what I remember from what the sensei and the Hokage were telling us."

"They're weary, tired, on edge. They're feeling caged," Kurenai whispered. "Many probably don't want to join us, but they also know that it is the only way for them to avoid complete extinction."

"Yes, that's the same feeling I got." Kakashi closed his eye and loudly breathed out. "They want safety and comfort of some haven they know will be a haven no matter what happens. A thing that's going to cause a lot of tensions very, very soon."

"We have common goals," Kurenai said and Kakashi arched an eyebrow at her. "Tell him, Asuma."

The bearded jonin extinguished his cigarette, lit another one and exhaled a loud cloud of smoke before doing anything else. "He is unfortunately right. Kurenai. What you say is also true, but you forget that their goals are arranged in a different order than are ours. We all want survival and safety, but the village also wants recognition… The Senju, at least now, especially now, just want the safety we can provide them with."

Kakashi didn't comment on this, he knew how bad such things could go and he really hoped that Konoha would avoid the worst of the potential issues that could destroy the village. Refugees from Uzu all of those years ago were a pain and that was a group of clans that knew Konoha and its members married with Konoha shinobi…

Senju for all of their former fame and glory were unknowns and strangers, strangers everybody had high expectations for.

"They will need time, a lot of time," Kakashi said and looked at the sky. "A thing many won't give them. Many will just force them into the ninja forces the second they cross village walls."

o-0-o

Yamato looked around as he forced his body to propel them through the last few feet of dirt, rocks and concrete. The jutsu drained almost all of his chakra in far less time than it should have. Granted, he never needed to carry someone else, but that shouldn't have made that much of a difference.

Popping a soldier pill into his mouth he looked around. They emerged close to where the warehouse used to stand and there were no shinobi or thugs that wanted them dead. Instead there were several teams of ANBU slowly digging through the rubble while watching what the massive Inuzuka ninken were doing.

"Search and rescue teams," he muttered under his breath. His gaze ran to the highest building in his vicinity and there he found one in charge of the whole thing. "Trackers and assault teams close by, interesting."

As he squinted his eyes Yamato could notice more of the details of the appearance of the ANBU in charge. He wore a long coat and a standard jonin vest instead of the gear of the ANBU. What more, he was surrounded by ANBU with the markings of the T&I.

"Inoichi," Yamato murmured. With a grunt he reached to Sasuke and almost effortlessly picked the boy up.

Chakra rushed into his feet as he propelled himself into the air. A single leap was enough and Yamato landed next to the Yamanaka. "Good job, Yamato," Inoichi said as he turned to look at him. "We assumed you were dead."

Yamato winced, a flash of pain shooting through his whole body. "A sensible assumption," he said and then almost collapsed. "The trap was good. If nor for Sasuke we would have died."

"And you will die if you're not in hospital, asap," Inuzuka Hana said as she appeared out of the shadows. "I'll take them to the hospital and make sure our personnel look at their injuries."

"Do it," Inoichi said. "Do it and then guard them. ROOT is everywhere and they might try to murder them."

A gasp got out of Yamato's lips as his body finally gave up and he crashed against the roof. The injuries he picked up, the exhaustion and now the soldier pill. All of them combined were too much for his body. Its limits were pushed too far and it did what it could to protect itself and prevent further damage before it was too much.

o-0-o

Naruto smiled as he landed on a branch of a tree directly in front of the gates of Konoha. "Home," he murmured. "As much as I hate some things about the village, it's good to be finally home."

"Yes," Sanga said, her eyes were full of amazement and awe as they all looked at the massive walls of the village and the Hokage Rock further in the distance. "I start to like it already."

"Me too," Raiden said as he dropped onto their branch. "Tou-san said that today at least the two of us should stay with you."

Naruto's smile disappeared as an expression of terror and shock replaced it. "What?" he sputtered.

"Don't sputter, take us to where you live," Sanga muttered as flickers of playful fire danced in her eyes. "Or should we drag you there."

"Fine," Naruto said and winced. "Just don't complain my place is a mess. I didn't have an opportunity to clean it up and I live on my own."

Sanga placed her hand on his shoulder and gently pulled him closer. "Trust me, we will be fine." She smiled and ruffled his hair. "If we like you, we might make it more liveable for you."

_To be continued…._


End file.
